Monday, Aug. 26, the Rehoboth Beach Board of Adjustment will hear a petition from the owners of the property at Rehoboth Avenue and the Boardwalk. This is a crucial corner in Rehoboth. And buildings last forever. The owners of this very large piece of property are proposing a hotel in the location; a hotel that does not meet height or size limits of our code. They are requesting seven variances from the building code. And while it may be a very nice building in Richmond, Va., where the property owner lives, the height, the bulk and the scale are grossly inappropriate in Rehoboth Beach. Unfortunately, this is not the only oversized building proposed for development in the city. Proposed projects include multiple hotels and a new theater complex.
I suspect that a lot of people don’t know the limits or the history of height restrictions in Rehoboth Beach and how we got to them. It is worthy of a reminder and discussion. There is an old saying, “Those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it.”
Efforts by citizens to preserve and enhance our quality of life have been continuous since we became a destination for tourists and a place where people wanted to make their hometown. And efforts to remake Rehoboth into a town we would no longer recognize have continued, too. We are the way we are today, and retain the small-town character we all treasure, because of the intentional efforts made by individual citizens and citizen groups.
Citizens have been successful not only in limiting the height of buildings in town, but also to ban bars without serving food (1989), limiting the size of restaurants serving alcohol (1992), preserving our tree canopy, helping to redesign Rehoboth Avenue, and limiting the size and bulk of buildings in residential neighborhoods, to name a few.
For this discussion, I’m going to focus on building height. I think it’s important to understand, especially now with the proposed new hotel, our height limits and how we got to where we are. There is a reason we don’t have an oceanfront lined with high-rises.
A little history:
1970 – The mayor and commissioners raised the building height in commercial districts from 56 to 85 feet.
1971 – The Rehoboth Beach Homeowners’ Association was formed because of concern about building height.
1972 - Construction started on 1 Virginia Ave. and Star of the Sea. Patrician Towers and Edgewater House were already complete, and planning for the Henlopen Hotel and Condos was underway.
RBHA petitioned for a 35-foot limit in residential and 50-foot limit in commercial zones. The mayor and commissioners voted a month later to drop all building heights to 50 feet.
August 1972 - RBHA members voted out the mayor and two commission members, largely on the issue of building height. Some candidates’ platforms included lowering height to 35 feet everywhere.
October 1974 - Public hearings began on a proposal to lower height limits again.
April 1975 – A compromise reached between the homeowners and the chamber of commerce resulted in height limits of 35 feet in residential areas and 42 feet in commercial areas, with a requirement for a setback from the property line. These height limits are the highest on the Delaware coast.
Interestingly enough, since so many business people want to overturn the height limits now, and have made and continue to make trips to the board of adjustment for variances, the most restrictive height limits were proposed by a well-known businessman and realtor, Norman Sugrue.
In 1987, then-Commissioner Sugrue proposed a 28-foot limit for both commercial and residential buildings in the city. Norman understood that the scale of our town was a key ingredient to our success. He was afraid that the streets would become tunnels of flat-roofed structures going straight up.
Unfortunately, he was not successful. Norman was a bigger-than-life human being who cared deeply about Rehoboth, and is much missed by those who knew him.
This is where we stand today. What lessons have we learned? Citizen activism makes the difference. Citizen activism can protect our quality of life. We were well on our way to becoming Ocean City, when citizen activists stepped in and stopped it.
Think about a 50-foot-tall house looming over yours. It’s scary, isn’t it? Aren’t you glad citizen activists remain active on issues like building height, density, green space and restaurant size? Stay active. Attend the board of adjustment meeting Monday, Aug. 26, at 5 p.m. in City Hall. Our city depends on it.
Jan Konesey
Rehoboth Beach
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