It appears DNREC wants to put us through another version of Groundhog Day. Two years ago, the community spoke quite forcefully in opposition to a restaurant and bar on a protected dune in Cape Henlopen Park. Now, DNREC plans to construct a cluster of multiroom buildings for overnight stays on the grounds of the youth primitive camping area. This is in addition to a proposed bathhouse on the same protected dune.
The youth camping area enables scouts and other groups to experience nature firsthand, learning lessons in the diversity and fragility of nature they will carry with them into their future understanding of our precious planet. In contrast, the cluster of luxury camping buildings, built over top of the present youth camp, will disrupt the environment via construction, produce noise and garbage, and will not accommodate those who seek to experience the park's unique environment, but will attract larger groups and compete with local hotels. All the while, the fishing pier is falling apart, and the bathhouse, for which Preserve Our Park helped secure $1M of funding for construction documents, is aging. I cannot fathom the thinking of state officials who reject the wishes of the citizenry and recent legislation to cram as many people into a scarce resource as possible.
It seems that in addition to DNREC State Parks’ three stated goals of education, recreation and stewardship, it has a fourth, unstated goal of revenue generation that works against the other three goals. This creates a conflict of interest demonstrated by the proposal to build houses on the youth camping area grounds.
Eventually, not tomorrow, but eventually, this thinking will destroy the very thing we love so much. And we will not be able to get it back. It will be a sad day indeed.
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