History

William H. Price

attorney, Staton, Whaley & Price of Snow Hill; Ocean City's zoning counsel · active 1945-1946

The lawyer who built Ocean City's zoning law. He is the 'Attorney Wm. Price' asked by the council on 23 January 1945 to prepare the enabling bill for Annapolis, which passed as Chapter 787 of the Acts of 1945; he advised the Zoning Commission on procedure at its organising meeting on 10 May 1945, read the 38-page draft ordinance aloud to the council and commission on 20 November 1945, conducted both public hearings of 19 and 22 December 1945 with his own stenographer taking down the objections, sat with the council through its April 1946 sessions moving district lines by hand, and redrafted the rebuilding clause. On 4 May 1946 he wrote the clerk the text of the minute to be taken at the meeting of 7 May, with the attendance, the mover, the seconder and the word 'unanimously' already typed, explaining that the whole ordinance had to be copied into the minute book because 'in the event of a contest the only admissible evidence as to the Ordinance is the record of the minutes'. He closed that letter with his firm's own judgment of the work: 'what we regard as one of the most important things that has been done for the future of the resort for many years'. He was still writing the town in May 1946 on a sewer easement question and asking, in a postscript, to be told the name of the Building Inspector when one was appointed. His firm billed Ocean City $1,324.24 for the zoning, paid 16 July 1946.