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Board delays decision on Ed’s Chicken

Town says eatery’s right to outdoor cooking ended in 2001
March 2, 2018

Story Location:
2200 Coastal Highway
Dewey Beach, DE 19971
United States

Dewey Beach Board of Adjustment unanimously tabled a discussion on the future use of the former Ed’s Chicken and Crabs site.

The 38-year-old restaurant was destroyed in August 2016, when a southbound car on Route 1 skipped the median and plowed into a small, cedar-shingled building that served as the kitchen and indoor dining area. The crash severed a propane line setting off a fire that turned the famous shack into nothing but a pile of charred wood and kitchen equipment.

During a three-hour hearing Feb. 26, Rusty Catts, property owner, questioned the town’s denial of a request to maintain the property’s legal nonconforming status as a food service enterprise operated partly or entirely outdoors. The restaurant, which opened at 2200 Coastal Highway property in the late 1970s, was granted nonconforming status when Dewey incorporated as a town in June 1981.

In the mid-1980s, the shack was built and picnic tables were set up, but Ed’s continued using the outdoor grill for food preparation. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that an indoor propane tank was installed and indoor cooking became possible.

Representing Catts was attorney John Paradee. He said the property was unique and argued the town should restore its legal, nonconforming status because it met a strict four-pronged definition – a nonconforming building that was damaged through no fault of the property owner, who was seeking to be rebuild in the same footprint within 18 months of being damaged.

Catts, who inherited the property after his father’s death in 2014, said there was no way his father and restaurant owner Ed Riggin would have agreed to give up their right to cook outside. Because of fires, he said, the restaurant had to periodically use the outdoor grills.

Representing the town was attorney Veronica Faust. She said the restaurant lost the privilege to cook outside when, in 2001, Riggin got a business license as an eatery, which has its own set of conditions. Once a property owner decides to go into a more restrictive classification, they can’t go back, she said.

Catts also went to the board to question the town’s decision that any new structure must comply with elevation requirements for structures in flood-prone areas.

Assistant Town Manager Jim Dedes said as long as the building meets the town’s floodplain regulations, Catts can rebuild the nonconforming building. The property is located in a flood zone which requires raising buildings 2 feet, but because of the town’s 1-foot freeboard, a new building would have to be at least 3 feet off the ground.

The property is located in the resort business district. Pardee argued Ordinance 710, adopted in 2014, says legal-nonconforming, non-residential buildings do not have to rebuild to federal standards in this district.

Faust said the town is not stopping Catts from rebuilding the shack, as long as he meets building standards for flood zones. She said not enforcing federal standards could mean the town might lose the ability to participate in the federal flood insurance program or, at the very least, lose the discount property owners enjoy in insurance because the town enforces a stricter set of floodplain requirements.

The board has scheduled a meeting to resume the discussion for 6 p.m., Monday, March 12, in the Dewey Beach Life Saving Station, 1 Dagsworthy Ave. 

 

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