It's late Friday afteroon and I am heading to the beach after a long week of work and the hustle and bustle in Wilmington. Five more minutes and I will be sitting on my back deck with a glass of wine and watching the sunset over the small 23-acre but most beautiful, relaxing, quiet and peaceful mini golf course.
Growing up my family always went to the Jersey shore for the summer where there are big beaches, big boardwalks and plenty of parking. When deciding on a beach house, the Jersey shore was too commercial for us and we wanted the quaintness of Rehoboth Beach. My husband and I have been here together for over 20 years and have enjoyed the peacefulness of the town.
My husband and I have lived in Stable Court for over 10 years and all 10 years we have had a view of the Rehoboth Golf Park. We have enjoyed taking walks with our dog on the golf coursethrough the neighboring developments. We have enjoyed many years of watching families of deer coming up to our yards along with other of Mother Nature's beauty.
Our years of memories have all been demolished. Our view within 50 feet will be the back of 90 age-restricted community single-family homes. Mother Nature's families have all been evicted and the dump trucks, tractors, and construction vehicles have taken over. Even my dog is wondering where her beautiful golf course went.
Over the past several years, we have watched Rehoboth Beach grow. Land being bought, houses, townhouses and condos going up on any available inch of land. Just last year another piece of ground (that my dog ran on) 1,000 feet from us, Gateway shopping center, has been commercially devoloped into Bed Bath & Beyond, Fresh Market, Wawa, and shortly three restaurants. Currently, the road to get in and out of that center (that is the same road that I take to get to my house) is the same for the Rehoboth Beach Country Club, Ocean Outlets, Exxon, Community Bank, Holiday Inn Express and the buses for the Park and Ride. At times, it can take at least three turns of a light before I can get thru that intersection, that is, once I can get out of my developement.
Now, when I go to walk my dog, the decision is, a muddy construction area or a paved parking lot. The nearest dog park is 15 miles away in Lewes. With the current construction and traffic from the shopping center I guess the decision is to walk her on the parking lot. That is after we play frogger just trying to cross Shuttle Road to get there.
Now on Friday afternoon I am no longer excited about driving to the beach to relax to see the sunset, but anxious of what am I in store for now. I used to be excited about getting down there and going into town to shop, go to the beach, go out for dinner and walking my dog. Now I think to myself, is it worth the drive to sit in traffic trying to get out of my house? What is it going to be like once the 90 homes are up. That's 90 more cars! Now they are talking adding a three-story nursing home. Now we are adding employees, doctors, nurses, visitors and delivery trucks, the list could go on. All on a mere 23 acres of the once beautiful property Mother Nature gave to us. My "quaint" Rehoboth Beach isn't "quaint" any longer. How much is enough to the business people that own the land.
Mr. Truitt's grandfather wanted the land to stay in the family, which I totally appreciate. I wish he was alive to see what his beautiful land had looked like and what it will look like in the future. Not the beauty it once was. I think Grandfather Truitt would have been more proud of a restored golf course in memory of him and knowing that he still had a piece of land people of Rehoboth enjoyed seeing.
But now when we hear the name, instead of what they did to keep the community their grandfather worked so hard for beautiful, but what they did to destroy it. Do you care about the residents you are affecting? How much do you need before it's enough? Will the additional nursing home be enough investment that you need? Or do you keep going? When do you stop?
Mary Latina
Rehoboth Beach
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