How legislation will prevent restaurants from ever being built in Cape Henlopen State Park

Gov. John Carney is set to sign a bill that will prevent a restaurant from ever being built in Cape Henlopen State Park, after such a proposal caused an uproar last year.

Delaware State Parks faced public protest in 2022 when they considered allowing La Vida Hospitality to build a restaurant in the area of the park's bathhouse and concessions. Ultimately, they dropped the idea, but freshman Sen. Russ Huxtable, a Lewes Democrat, filed a bill in May to hold them to their decision.

At first, with complaints about concessions and the 50-year-old bathhouse, La Vida's plan was appealing to Delaware State Parks officials, but the backlash from the public was swift. Social media teemed with criticism, letters to the editor were sent and the citizens’ group Preserve Our Park Coalition was formed and organized a march.

“If State Parks is in such dire need of more resources, there are better ways to raise funds. (The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, State Parks' parent agency,) should preserve Delaware’s natural heritage, not exploit it for as much money as it can,” Preserve Our Park Coalition's mission statement says.

However, numerous other state parks have restaurants and other private business partnerships. La Vida itself operates Big Chill inside Delaware Seashore State Park. So what makes Cape Henlopen any different?

The Warner Grant, according to Preserve Our Parks, officially made Cape Henlopen public lands in 1682, nearly a century before Delaware became a state. In 1979, the General Assembly further defined the boundaries of the Warner Grant Trust Lands and what it could be used for.

A restaurant would violate the 1979 legislation, a Preserve Our Parks Coalition attorney wrote in a letter to the state, but the case never went to court.

In December 2022, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and La Vida Hospitality “mutually decided,” according to a DNREC news release, not to move forward with the idea.

Specifically, though, the news release says they decided “not to move forward at this time.” It was issued during a public meeting at Cape Henlopen High School, where a huge crowd had come ready to fight for the park. Huxtable was there, too.

“I think a lot of people noticed the phrasing of that,” Huxtable said. “That means they’re going to come back and revisit this.”

Now, Huxtable’s bill will not only ensure Cape Henlopen is “administered for the public benefit” through conservation, nature education and public recreation, but that “hospitality amenities such as a restaurant, hotel, hostelry, or entertainment center,” will never be developed there.

The bill sailed through the House and Senate without a single vote against it. Gov. Carney is expected to sign it in the next few months.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on Sussex County and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Restaurants set to be prohibited from Cape Henlopen State Park