Cape Henlopen State Park doesn’t need upscale cottages
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is at it again with a proposal for upscale rentals at Cape Henlopen State Park.
Somehow, DNREC has drastically expanded the role and responsibilities of the Division of Parks and Recreation during the closing days of the Carney administration. Parks & Rec is now hoping to build and manage upscale beach rentals. Tourists can forget about VRBO and Airbnb; just call Parks & Rec.
Buried in their proposal to make multiple camping upgrades at CHSP is a new twist: build 11 cottages in a secluded community protected by a coded security gate. The two- and three-bedroom rentals are major upgrades to the cabins presently available at the park. They will have full kitchens, an open floor plan with a dining area, laundry facilities and separate outdoor areas.
Precluded from building or operating a restaurant, an entertainment center or a hotel at the park, DNREC has figured out how to sidestep the limits established by the 2023 legislation championed by Sen. Russ Huxtable, Senate Bill 6, that was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate. If you sprinkle enough cottages throughout the park, it will eventually equal a hotel, and they might even attract upscale renters willing to pay more. The expectation is that rates will be consistent with rentals in Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach.
The original court cases that eventually produced the Warner Grant Trust legislation of 1979 were triggered in part by fears that real estate developers would not stop new construction projects at what is now Cape Shores but would push their efforts out onto the oceanfront area that is now CHSP.
Upscale, exclusive rentals do not seem to fit in any of the park’s three legislatively defined purposes: recreation, conservation and nature education. I guess no one imagined that the agency charged with serving as the steward for the park would transform itself into a rental development/management firm.
The Meyer administration will hopefully bring Parks & Rec under control or perhaps consider removing that agency as trustee of CHSP and entrust that task to an agency that will discharge the job of trustee more faithfully.
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