I am a longtime fan and patron of Nalu in Dewey Beach. I especially enjoy the restaurant's food, but only in the daytime when they are not playing super-loud music. I wish I could be supportive of that business' proposal to expand its interior space, as described in a May 31 article, but I am very concerned about the potential for even more disturbing loud music blasting out toward Coastal Highway.
As it stands now, although I live more than half a block away on Van Dyke Avenue, I cannot leave my windows open on soft summer nights due to the loud music coming from Nalu. In his expansion application, owner Regan Derrickson acknowledges receiving a tremendous amount of noise complaints from only one of his neighbors. I guess the rest of us neighbors mostly complain to each other about the disturbance instead of raising the issue with Mr. Derrickson or with the Dewey Beach Police. It would appear that the time to complain more publicly is now, before the problem is exacerbated by Nalu's proposed expansion.
The current placement of Nalu's stage and speakers sends the noise in a northwesterly direction toward the interior of the bar/restaurant, but with sliding-glass doors open to the deck area leaking noise from behind in my direction. From the diagram in the expansion proposal, it looks like the new stage will point the noise straight out westward through open sliding-glass doors toward Coastal Highway and several feet closer to the residential area of my street. I must admit, I am very skeptical about Nalu's claim in its application that the proposed new floor plan will relocate the stage to a more interior location in hopes to end the complaints going forward. If the sliding-glass doors in the schematic remain open to the deck area, it seems to me that instead of a more interior location, it will basically become even more of an open-air music venue than it already is.
It is my sincere hope that the Dewey Beach Planning Commission will treat this expansion application with the greatest of caution.
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