County leaders approved a text amendment for a new cluster design at local campgrounds last week.
As per a report, the Worcester County Commissioners (Maryland) voted 5-0 to adopt a text amendment that allows a cluster design for park model trailers and cabins at rental campgrounds.
The new layout will permit campgrounds like Frontier Town to try a different layout than the traditional rows of campers and vehicles parked next to each other.
“This isn’t to increase density; this is to make a better camping experience,” said attorney Hugh Cropper, who submitted the text amendment on behalf of Sun TRS Frontier, LLC.
According to county staff, the new standards would permit flexibility to minimum campsite area, setback, width, road frontage, and parking requirements. The changes would apply only to recreational park trailers and cabins in rental and membership campgrounds.
Cropper said that the company behind Frontier Town operated campgrounds nationally and was looking to make modifications at the Berlin facility, which was gaining popularity across the country.
In a recent Modern Campground story, it has been reported that camping remains popular amid high gas prices and inflation.Instead of the rows upon rows of RVs surrounded by the campers’ vehicles, the company would like to set up a cluster of cabins with parking farther away.
“What it does is – we don’t eliminate the parking, we don’t reduce the parking — we just move it over here out of the way, and we cluster the campsites so in between them you’ve got green space,” Cropper said.
He also said it was only limited to 20% of the campground, and while the text amendment is county-wide, Cropper said in this case, Frontier Town planned to use this cluster design for the expansion of the 112-campsite it already had approved.
Staff stressed that under the text amendment, off-premise parking was not allowed. While parking isn’t required to be adjacent to the campsite, it must still be located within the campground.
“This is meant to be a better experience and a more environmentally friendly condition with less impervious surface,” Cropper said. “It’s actually more expensive for the developer to build, but it results in a better experience.”
The commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the text amendment, with commissioners Bud Church and Diana Purnell absent.
This story originally appeared on The Dispatch.