Palmer Gillis, of Gillis Gilkerson, the builder and developer of the Delmarva Health Pavilion in Ocean Pines, has a point. Although he refrained from saying it bluntly when he met with residents last Friday to discuss his project’s traffic flow problems, that facility is there to stay, like it or not.
That won’t be the end of it either, as more will happen on that parcel over time, whether his company does it or it’s some future owner who figures out a way to get a better return on the investment.
How the pavilion got there, whether Gillis Gilkerson should have purchased the property in the first place and what anyone said or didn’t say two or three years ago going into the project is irrelevant. That’s history and the issue now is how to address the future in a way that’s at least tolerable for everyone involved.
There’s no reason to doubt Gillis when he said if the project’s ingress and egress issues can’t be resolved, he would sell the whole package to someone who might have other ideas about how to use it. He is, after all, in business to make a profit.
Considering what could be permitted under the parcel’s commercial zoning designation – service stations, restaurants and retail space among other things – having a nice campus with healthcare offices is the best possible fit.
Maybe, as was proposed Friday, the installation of another traffic signal on the highway will provide quick relief, but chances are commercial growth and the development of the surrounding area will lead to a time when that won’t be enough.
Additional traffic studies will be required before the property can be fully developed and those could limit the project’s potential.
Still, it would behoove the community, the task force that will consider the traffic configuration options and Gillis Gilkerson to address the immediate situation, but also to think about what the issues might be 10 years from now.