There is an ever-increasing number of letters and articles that allude to how developers are killing our Golden Goose.
I maintain the Golden Goose is already dead.
The proliferation of recent existing, approved and planned mega developments in our beach communities has driven the Goose to overdose on greed and terrible planning. So unless they make Narcan for geese, the Golden Goose is a goner. The only thing that will stop the insane overdevelopment frenzy will be the tipping point at which people will no longer want to live or visit here.
There is already a developing trend of longtime residents moving away, soon to be followed by more recent residents who find it wise to sell before the glut of oversized homes devalues all of our property values.
Further, we also should consider this possibility. The owners of many of the new homes and McMansions are retirees from high-cost, high-tax states who because they cashed in big time on their former homes were and are able to easily afford their homes here at the beach. But not to be morbid, these people will start to die off in the coming 15 years. The Millennial Generation, under conventional circumstances, might be ready to buy up at about this time. But they won’t. They’ve demonstrated a proclivity not to want to own a house, a car or other traditional assets. So the big homes will sit empty, and further devalue all homes in the area.
The other hot topic, if you will, is the call for more roads and expansion of existing roads as if this will solve our infrastructure problem.
That train left the station many years ago. First, new or expanded roads can’t possibly be built fast enough. Second, construction on existing roads would only add to the existing traffic backups. Third, no matter how many new roads are built, they all eventually at some point will feed into the Coastal Highway. With the same result, another chokepoint and gridlock. I posit spending money on new or existing roads is an exercise in futility. DelDOT and our legislators are at least 15 years behind the power curve on this solution.
Talk about being on the “Horns of a Dilemma.”
Steve Hyle
Lewes
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