DEWEY BEACH, DE - The Dewey Beach Town Council will discuss the possibility of creating regulations for tents and canopies on their beaches at their upcoming town council meeting on Friday, October 18th.
Dewey Beach Town Manager Bill Zolper said the town's growing summer traffic is one reason for the regulation discussion.
"As our beaches get more crowded, and people bring down their tents and their canopies, there may have to be some regulations put in place to kind of give some guidance and some rules on how the public can put those up on our beach," Zolper said.
According to the town manager, the town currently does not have any regulations on tents or canopies.
At the town's code and charter meeting held on October 9th, the committee proposed the draft regulations being discussed at Friday's meeting.
The town manager told WBOC that the initial proposal suggests banning tents, which is classified as anything with solid sides. The exception to this rule would be infant tents, which are 36 inches in height, width, and length.
Canopies with just a roof would still be allowed on the beaches, according to town manager Zolper.
"When a person puts a tent up on the beach with all have all four sides and they go into it, you don't know what they're actually doing in there," Zolper said. "Whether they're drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes or marijuana, or what's actually going on there. Plus, it obstructs other viewers on the beach of their view of the ocean."
Taylor Hayden, who works in the area, said he's seen the crowds of tents during the summers.
"We get down there before the sun rises to go hit the waves and it's just lines of tents taking up full blocks," Hayden said.
Hayden said he's seen a lot of debate over the canopies on social media. While he said he doesn't think they need to be banned, Hayden said he understands why people are frustrated.
"Personally I don't care but they have the right to be upset," Hayden said. "It's a nuisance I would say, quote unquote nuisance."
The possible rule changes are only up for discussion at Friday's meeting. The ordinance could be adopted at a future meeting this fall.
