DOVER, Del. - Cape Henlopen State Park may receive some additional protections following attempts to develop land within its boundaries in late 2022. A bill introduced by Sen. Russ Huxtable from Milton that would clarify a balance between development and the interests of the greater public passed the Delaware Senate on Tuesday with an amendment.
The bill addresses a land grant called the Warner Grant from nearly 340 years ago for an area that includes the park and some land next to Lewes city limits. According to the bill, the grant was revisited in the 1970s after another dispute. Back then, debates took place over who had authority to enforce the grant after the city leased land in the grant area to a real estate company to build a new housing development. In the end boundaries were set to more clearly define where the land is, and the Warner Grant Trust was established.
The bill currently moving through the Delaware legislature follows a similar public outrage over a restaurant proposed in late 2022 to be built in the park. Nearly 1,000 people showed up to protest at a December public meeting about the project.
Senate Bill 6 clarifies that the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control must administer the lands in the grant for public benefit. Public benefit should be in line with three priorities including conservation, nature education, and public recreation, though an amendment to the bill says that not all three are needed for a use or activity to be permitted.
However, Senate Bill 6 still allows for for-profit or public-private partnerships that would provide private benefits or financial gain. The bill says these just cannot be detrimental to the public benefit.
Future disputes over the park and the other nearby grant lands are under the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. Additionally, if the Warner Grant Trust is not enforced, any resident of Sussex County can bring a lawsuit.
"We are not providing guarantees, in fact the work of this body failed to prevent guarantees in the past," said Sen. Kyle Evans Gay during Tuesday's hearing of the bill. "We cannot say that a court would not rule one way or the other, but we can stand here today and say what we hope they will do."
An amendment to the bill clarifies that uses of the land that were already in existence on Jan. 1, 2023, like the concession stand, rental facilities, and other public-private partnerships, that support the three priorities are permitted to continue.
Preserve Our Park, a group of citizens that formed in response to the restaurant proposal, sees the bill as the General Assembly remaining true to an obligation to ensure that future generations of Delawareans will have the opportunity to enjoy Cape Henlopen State Park's natural environment.
Senate Bill 6 was passed in the Senate unanimously. It now heads to the House.