A Delaware vice chancellor ruled that a redevelopment project at the site of an aging shopping center will have to consist of a single building.
Sam Glassock made the ruling in the long-running Ocean Bay Mart vs. City of Rehoboth Beach case.
The shopping center, near the entrance to the beach town and now known as Rehoboth Beach Plaza, has long been slated to become a residential development.
As Glasscock noted, the shopping area, across from the “forgotten mile area outside the municipal limits, is a landmark “perhaps not the city’s most attractive.”
Owner Keith Monigle sought to have a condominium project with detached homes on the nearly eight-acre property, citing that city’s development pattern.
Monigle’s attorneys claimed the project had “vested rights” that pre-dated the council’s actions.
The Rehoboth Council voted in favor of zoning that requires one building on the property, with Monigle aware that a change could be in the works. He then filed suit.
“…Mr. Monigle was aware from the earliest planning stages that the city might prefer to impose a subdivision requirement on him, that he eschewed the chance to put tentative plans before the city to avoid “poking the beast,” and that he, therefore, relied on rather obscure assurances from City officials that he would be able to proceed without subdivision,” Glasscock wrote.
The tentative plan review, according to Glasscock, would have provided insight into the city’s position.
(See a copy of the decision below).
https://storage.googleapis.com/delawarebusinessnow-cdn/2021/10/7Gt0v0DM-ocean-bay-mart-v.-city-of-rehoboth-beach-mo-final-updated-metadata-removed.pdf
