LEWES, Del. - Officials from The Delaware Department of Natural Resources announced at a public meeting Monday night regarding a potential new restaurant in Cape Henlopen State Park, that both DNREC and La Vida Hospitality LLC have mutually decided to not move forward with the proposal.
"There's some outstanding concerns such as the Warner Grant and the environmental impact that need to be considered, and I think we've also learned that public opinion is something that needs to be heard by the Parks to get a full understanding of what the desire is for something like this," said La Vida's Josh Grapski.
In April, DNREC awarded La Vida Hospitality LLC a contract to manage existing concessions at the park, with an agreement to consider building a much larger restaurant. The proposal for a more than 6,000-square-foot restaurant was presented at a park workshop in the spring to DNREC officials.
The unexpected announcement came as many local neighbors prepared to publicly share their opinions and concerns regarding the proposal. DNREC hosted the meeting to hear community feedback. The community answered by filling the Cape Henlopen High School auditorium to maximum capacity.
A vast majority of attendees demonstrated their opposition to the proposal by raising signs that read, "No Restaurant", distributed by members of the Preserve Our Park Coalition.
Though most attendees seemed surprised and pleased with DNREC's announcement, many still used their two-minute opportunity to express their opinions and concerns about the proposal and the way it has been handled.
"Your job is to serve people and the land, not corporations like La Vida Hospitality," one audience member said addressing DNREC officials.
Others, though very few, expressed their support for the restaurant.
Despite DNREC's efforts to explain the process and details behind the proposal and their ultimate decision to not move forward with the restaurant at this time, many neighbors still had questions and concerns.
"What is the for now?" says attendee Rick Spitzborg. "What is the criteria for when they're going to pick it back up? What is the criteria for when they're going to make a decision?"
According to DNREC's Director of Parks and Recreation Ray Bivens, there is currently no timeline for when discussions about a proposal will resume.
"I think people that I talked to really enjoyed hearing about that process, how it all came about it, and it was nice to have people acknowledge the needs of the park," said Bivens. "We definitely need more bathrooms, more accessibility, and we have had complaints about food service in the past. So we appreciate La Vida's interest in bidding on this, but we mutually agreed that it is not going to be moving forward at this time."
DNREC says it will continue to gather data regarding natural and cultural resources in Cape Henlopen State Park and to seek public input regarding the levels of service provided at the site.
