OCEAN CITY, Md. — With spring set to begin on March 20, Ocean City will begin to fill up with tourists on weekends leading to summer.
Thousands of visitors stay at homes located in what's called R1 or MH Districts.
R1 areas are described as low density single family residential developments, while MH stands for mobile homes.
On March 3 Ocean City's Mayor and Council significantly shook up rental requirements concerning some property owners.
Any R1 or MH rentals booked on or after March 3, 2025 require a minimum five-night stay.
Come January 1, 2027 that requirement will increase to a minimum 31 days.
The Council says the new ordinance aims to "prevent overcrowding of land and avoid undue concentration of population in the wrong zones caused by rental properties, to protect against noise and other disturbances."
Lawmakers also said their goal is to "promote long term property ownership and quality of life for year round resident populations."
Upon learning the news, many home owners expressed a desire to sell their property, claiming to have rental reservations already booked.
In response, Ocean City passed another ordinance prohibiting existing rental licenses from being part of a property sale.
This means new property buyers would be forced to reapply for their own rental license, with death being the only exception.
The only problem with that is, beginning on February 3, 2025, Ocean City implemented an 11 month moratorium on issuing short-term rental licenses in R1 and MH Districts.
Here is a map of R1 rentals impacted by the new policies.
To read a full description of the newly passed ordinances, click here and scroll to pages 120-132.
