Ocean City Zoning Commission
government · founded 1945
Ocean City's first zoning body, constituted under an enabling act passed by the Maryland legislature in the 1945 session. Its five members - Harland R. Huston of Salisbury, Walter A. Jarman, John P. Whaley, Frank Waller and Dr. C. W. Purnell - were sounded out by Mayor Trimper in April 1945 and accepted by the council on 24 April. It organised on 10 May 1945, electing Frank Waller president and Dr. C. W. Purnell secretary, with Attorney Wm. Price advising on procedure and Engineer Clark Gardner on the work. It delivered a preliminary report on 27 August, which the council voted only to receive; by 22 October its zoning map was already deciding a night-club application, which it had classed 'B Area' against the owner's wish for 'BB Area'. On 20 November 1945 its members signed a 38-page ordinance and turned it over to the council after a steak dinner at City Lunch, and the council accepted the report unanimously on 26 November. Public hearings followed on 19 and 22 December 1945; the 1945 minute book records no vote adopting the ordinance.
In the record (9)
1945 · 1945-05-10
Ocean City's first Zoning Commission organised on 10 May 1945 with Frank Waller as president and Dr. C. W. Purnell as secretary.
The council met at 8 PM for the purpose of getting the Zoning Commission organized. Clark Gardner and Purnell were present to outline the programme, as was Attorney Wm. Price to aid in setting up the proper procedure. The members present were Harland R. Huston of Salisbury, W. A. Jarman, J. P. Whaley, Frank Waller and Dr. C. W. Purnell - the five men Mayor Trimper had been sent on 10 April to ask whether they would serve, and whom the council voted to accept on 24 April. Mr. Whaley read the law on the zoning set-up and Mr. Gardner went over the entire matter for the commission to consider, after which the commission organised by electing Frank Waller president and Dr. C. W. Purnell secretary, and set its next meeting for 24 May. It is six months to the week since the council first asked John S. Whaley to draft a zoning ordinance.
Dr. Charles Washington PurnellClark GardnerJohn P. Whaley
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-08-27
Ocean City's Zoning Commission delivered its preliminary report on 27 August 1945, and the council voted only to receive it.
The council met at 8:30 PM with the Zoning Commission - Mayor Trimper, Councilmen Dolle and Savage for the town, and Attorney Wm. Price with chairman Frank Waller, Harland Huston, C. W. Purnell and J. P. Whaley for the commission. Attorney Price read a report of the work done by the commission and discussion followed, after which R. Dolle moved and C. O. Savage seconded that the Zoning Commission's preliminary report be received and that it receive consideration. Receiving is all the council did. The report itself is not bound into the minutes, and within eight weeks its zoning map was being used to decide a night-club permit.
Dr. Charles Washington PurnellRudolph DolleCranford O. SavageJohn P. Whaley
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-11-20
Ocean City's first zoning ordinance ran to thirty-eight pages, was read aloud in a single afternoon, and was signed over to the council after a steak dinner at City Lunch.
The council met the Zoning Commission at 3 PM on Tuesday 20 November: Mayor Trimper with Dolle, Lynch and Savage; Frank Waller, Harland Huston, Walter Jarman, J. P. Whaley and C. W. Purnell for the commission, with Clark Gardner, Purnell, Wm. Price and John Whaley. Chairman Frank Waller called the meeting to order and Wm. Price read and commented on the 38-page document, finishing at 6:30, at which point the meeting adjourned to go to City Lunch for a steak dinner. Afterwards the members returned to the council office, had further discussion, and the document was signed by the Zoning members and turned over to the City Council. The mayor and council then arranged for a public hearing and its advertising, to be held on the afternoon of Wednesday 19 December and the morning of Saturday 22 December 1945. On 26 November the council resolved unanimously, John B. Lynch moving and R. Dolle seconding, that the report be accepted.
Clark GardnerJohn S. WhaleyDr. Charles Washington PurnellJohn P. WhaleyDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-12-19
About twenty-five people came to Ocean City's first zoning hearing on 19 December 1945, and a stenographer took down every objection - and the transcript is not in the town's record.
The mayor and city council met at 2 PM in the Firemen's Room to hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance and zoning map, with Attorney Wm. Price and a stenographer, and a Mr. McAveney and a second man from Baltimore representing the Fire Board. About twenty-five people were present; the ordinance was read and objections noted by Mr. Price, and the meeting adjourned at 5 PM to reconvene on the Saturday morning. On 22 December the hearing resumed at 10 AM, called to order by Mayor Trimper, with Savage the only councilman present - Dolle absent through sickness and Lynch called out of town. Price conducted it and had his stenographer take the minutes of the meeting and the names of those present; all who wished to be heard made their statements, and it adjourned at 12:05. Neither transcript, nor any list of who objected, is in the portal. The minute book closes four days later with the ordinance still unadopted.
Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Cranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1946 · 1946-04-03
Five weeks before adoption the Ocean City council sat down with the zoning map and moved district lines by hand, enlarging one business area to the ocean and turning half of another into residential.
The full board met with Attorney Wm. Price on the evening of Wednesday 3 April 1946 'to go over the Zoning ordinance & map', and the meeting proceeded by reading the map. Approval was made of areas 7 and 11 as Industrial as outlined; of the B.B. area as laid down on the map; and of B areas 4 to 9. Then two changes: 'B area 4 enlarged to a point midway between First Street & Second Street, north to extend to Ocean', and 'Line dividing area 10 from area 9 moved South half a block, and remainder of area 9 created as residential area'. The one formal motion of the night, by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, abolished all distinction as to side and rear yard regulation in residential use districts and made it uniform as prescribed for A Area district in the Zoning Commission's final report. The meeting rose at 11:20. The council met again the following evening, read on, and the clerk recorded that 'nothing definitely done', adjourning at 11:30.
John B. LynchCranford O. SavageDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph Dolle
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-04-11
On 11 April 1946 Ocean City's council made three named changes to its zoning commission's final report - a block rezoned B-40-A, a twelve-month rebuilding right, and the density put back to sixty families an acre.
Meeting with Attorney Wm. Price, the council decided to make the following changes from the Commission's final report: from lots 10, 11 and 12 in Block 9 north, to lots 7, 8 and 9 in Block 10 north inclusive, east of the alley in said blocks, to be zoned B-40-A; paragraph 11 on page 13 amended to permit rebuilding within twelve months for a non-conforming use higher than B.B. business use; and paragraph 18(d), density of population, 'changed back to 60 families per acre'. All three survive into the adopted ordinance: Par. 11 is the twelve-month fire clause, and Par. 18(d) caps a B-Area district at sixty families to the acre. On 25 April the council read a letter from Price about the change it had made on the rebuilding clause and the redrafting of the paragraph on damaged buildings, accepted his idea of it, and had the secretary write him that his draft was O.K.
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-07
Ocean City's power to zone came from Chapter 787 of the Acts of 1945 - Senate Bill 335, approved 27 April 1945 as an emergency law written for Ocean City alone.
Ordinance No. 99 cites its enabling act three times - twice on its second page, once on page 30 - as 'chapter 787 of the acts of 1945 of the General Assembly of Maryland', and recites in full what the act granted: power under the police power of the State to establish districts and zones regulating height, stories, size of buildings, lot coverage, yards, courts, density of population and the location and use of buildings for trade, industry, residence or other purposes; to provide a Commission to recommend boundaries and regulations; to provide for amendment and repeal; to provide a Board of Zoning Appeals; and to provide for administration, penalties and conflict with existing law. The act itself was then located in the 1945 session laws: Chapter 787 (Senate Bill 335), approved 27 April 1945, effective immediately as an emergency law on a three-fifths vote of both houses, 'AN ACT to add ten new sections to Article 24 of Flack's Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland (1930 Edition), title Worcester County, sub-title Ocean City, to follow immediately after Section 157 and to be numbered 157(a) through 157(j)'. It is a local law drafted for one town, which is why the ordinance's purpose clause - and the act's own recital - say the regulations promote the welfare of the inhabitants 'and the visitors therein', a phrase absent from the model act every other American zoning ordinance of the period copies. This answers the 1945 pass's top open question.
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-07
Ocean City passed its first zoning ordinance 3-0 on the evening of 7 May 1946, and it was in force that night.
The Mayor and City Council met in regular monthly session at 7:30 P.M. with the whole board present - Mayor Daniel Trimper Jr., Councilmen John B. Lynch, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage, and John M. Mumford, City Clerk. The President of the City Council laid before the council the form of The Zoning Ordinance of Ocean City, Maryland, 'as recommended by the Zoning Commission and revised following public advertised hearings before the Mayor and City Council and numerous sessions of the Mayor and City Council to consider suggestions and objections adduced at said hearings and at the hearings held by the Zoning Commission.' On motion by Councilman Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Councilman Crawford O. Savage, it was unanimously passed as Ordinance No. 99. Section II provides that the ordinance 'shall take effect from the date of its passage' - no delay, no publication period, no referendum. Trimper approved it the same day. The whole of the 39 manuscript pages and the map that follow are the ordinance; the clerk records no other motion, no correspondence, no bills and no adjournment. Dolle - who cast the lone dissenting vote on the bus terminal in February 1945 - moved it, voted for it, signed it as councilman and attested it as Secretary to the City Council.
Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph DolleCranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchJ. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-10-01
Ocean City's first Board of Zoning Appeals was confirmed on 1 October 1946 with the man who had chaired the Zoning Commission as its chairman - and one seat already changed hands before the board was ever listed.
'The appointment of Mr. James Farlow to take place of Mr. Harland Huston on Zoning Appeal Board for one year was approved', and the clerk then set the board out in full: James Farlow, one year; Walter H. Jarman, one year; Dr. C. W. Purnell, two years; Franklin Waller, three years; John P. Whaley, four years. Mayor Trimper named Waller chairman. Ordinance No. 99 required exactly this - five members, staggered two/one/one/one at one, two, three and four years, one designated chairman by the Mayor - and the council's instinct on 21 May had been simply 'to ask the same members to serve that were on the Zoning Board'. It substantially did: Waller chaired the Zoning Commission organised in May 1945 and Purnell was its secretary, so the men who wrote the ordinance now sat on the board that heard appeals from it. The substitution was made before the meeting: on the lawyers' draft of 4 May, 'Harland Houston' is struck through in manuscript with 'James Farlow' written above it, and the two-year seat there reads 'John W. Purnell'.
Ocean City Board of Zoning AppealsFrank WallerDr. Charles Washington PurnellJohn P. WhaleyDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.
Source · checked 2026-08-15