Rehoboth residents express concern about proposed marina

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. –  A Rehoboth Beach community is voicing their concerns about a proposed development that they say would bring a lot of noise and traffic into their area.

The development is called Oyster House Village and on Tuesday night, a public hearing was hosted by DNREC to discuss the construction of a new community marina.

The marina is slated to have 20 slips and it would be constructed on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal.

Gary Fisher, a homeowner said, “The 20 marina slots will be used only by new landowners, and residents on either side of the community will not continue to have access to the water.”

This marina would only be a small part of the bigger Oyster House Village development, a development that residents worry would bring noise, congestion and pollution.

Fisher said, “This is a whole new assault on a public resource.”

People say the proposed marina likely won’t work because the canal is too small.

Ron Derr, a concerned resident said, “How you’re going to get the boats to fit in with 20 boats running alongside the canal? They pass each other right now, so what’s to stop them?”

Residents were told that this development is a done deal, but they hope DNREC will hear their concerns and take them seriously.

Derr said, “They either scale the marina down or the fact is that, okay, if it is a done deal, what can we work together to make this work? Because right now, it’s just not going to work for the residents along here.”

DNREC held a public hearing about the marina to give the public a chance to comment on the proposal and to educate them more about it.

People who couldn’t attend the meeting were allowed to submit comments to DNREC so they could take them into consideration.