Judge halts 60-foot water slide at Jungle Jim's

The owners of Jungle Jim's Amusement Park are considering options following a June 7 Superior Court ruling that has halted plans for a new 60-foot water slide at the park in Rehoboth Beach.

David Hutt, the owners' attorney, said one of the options for Lingo family members is to appeal to Delaware Supreme Court; the deadline for that action is Friday, July 7.

Ruling on a suit brought by residents who live near the park, Superior Court Judge E. Scott Bradley overturned a height variance for the slide granted by the Sussex County Board of Adjustment Feb. 29 because the owners failed to meet every criteria the board must rely on to make a decision.

“Jungle Jim's cannot demonstrate that a variance is necessary to enable it to reasonably use its property,” Bradley wrote.

Voting 3-2, the board approved a height variance to allow a new 60-foot water slide, rising 18 feet above the county’s maximum height limit of 42 feet.

The slide platform would rise 47 feet with a 13-foot canopy, about the same height as two existing water slides at the park. Those slides were built in 2002 and also exceed the county's height limit, but at the time, they were not subject to a public hearing before the board of adjustment. They were approved as part of a commercial site plan review by the county's planning and zoning commission.

One of the criteria the board must consider is proof of hardship. Bradley agreed with the appellants that no hardship exists. “There is nothing on the record to show that the unique physical attributes of the property in question present any exceptional hardship or difficulty to Jungle Jim's. There is quite simply nothing unique about Jungle Jim's property,” he wrote.

Bradley also found that Jungle Jim's could add another 42-foot slide without a variance. “There is nothing in the record that supports a conclusion that building a smaller water slide ... would not be a reasonable use of Jungle Jim's property,” he wrote.

Bradley did concur with the board that the placement of a new slide would not change the character of the neighborhood, one of nearby residents' concerns. Bradley said the park already has two 60-foot slides and has been part of the neighborhood for more than 40 years.

The new slide would have taken the place of a go-kart track that was removed by the owners in response to complaints about noise.

Jungle Jim’s – in operation since the mid-1970s – is located on a 15-acre parcel at the intersection of Country Club Road and Route 1.