What is quiet upzoning
What should be a mostly single-family island (R-1) has been quietly upzoned to R-2 (duplex) and R-MF (multi-family) over the years.
Quiet upzoning doesn’t always mean new zoning laws. Sometimes, the changes were approved years ago, unnoticed, while no one was paying attention. In Ocean City, the R-1 to R-2 conversions already happened. What we see now is the result: developers replacing single-family homes one by one, with no opposition because there’s nothing left to oppose on paper.
For years, fixer-upper buyers never stood a chance. Homes have been sold off-market to developers offering cash, sight unseen. No sign. No listing. No open house. Just a private deal with someone who sees “highest and best use” as a duplex with two decks and a rental-ready layout. Even when homes do hit the market, developers are ready to outbid families on the spot. That reality makes me worry about the long-term future of my own character-filled 130-year old Italianate house. I hope someone else will love it as much as I do when I'm gone, but the odds aren’t good.
Sometimes even organized protest isn’t enough to stop bad zoning from taking place. The Glen Cove marina didn’t sneak through in silence. There was a public hearing. The debate was thorough, even rousing. Residents showed up in force with clear, well-reasoned arguments about why a commercial marina was incompatible in a residential zone. They cited traffic, parking strain, neighborhood disruption, and the need for consistency in how the zoning code is applied.
And then, the Zoning Board voted that no use variance was required. Not because the marina wasn’t a commercial use, but because the board chose to reinterpret it as something already permitted. The docks float, they reasoned, so the zoning doesn’t apply. Never mind that the marina depends entirely on land-based infrastructure: access, vehicles, signage, and service.
That decision wasn’t quiet in the moment. But the outcome was quiet upzoning in its purest form: an interpretation that rewrote precedent without rewriting the law. And now, any waterfront property owner can make the same claim.
Mixed-use isn’t the villain here. Done right, it can be walkable, efficient, community-serving. But Ocean City isn’t doing it right.
The Planning Board is approving mixed-use projects on Asbury, West Avenue, and now Coral Sands without requiring third-party traffic studies, utility assessments, or economic analysis. Apartments strain our sewer system more than retail ever could, yet no one’s measuring that impact. Parking demand is guessed at.
Worse, we don’t even know what these changes mean for commerce.If landlords can make their money from condos over storefronts, what incentives do they have to keep ground-floor retail rents affordable? If you can make your money through housing, why bother renting to a quirky local business at all?
The point is: we don’t know. Because this patchwork approach means it’s not the same rules for everyone. It’s approval by improvisation. And without a comprehensive master plan review, we are flying blind into Ocean City’s future.
And yet it is not too late. Quiet upzoning thrives when people tune out, but the opposite is also true: attention, persistence, and participation can change the outcome. Every hearing, every variance, every approval matters. Residents have more influence than they think, if they show up, ask questions, and refuse to let precedent be rewritten in silence.
Ocean City’s story is not finished. We know we can build profitably and preserve character. The city should reward those who do.
We can still write the next chapter, if we choose to. Quiet upzoning thrives in silence. The cure is attention, participation, and persistence. Come to the next Planning Board meeting. Ask the questions no one else is asking. Demand a smart, thoughtful master plan. Together, we can make sure that Ocean City’s future is one we all want to live in.
