Beautiful Delmarva

I spent Thanksgiving on the waterfront on the Eastern Shore, the Virginia part of Delmarva, which is according to RoadTrip USA circa 2002, one of the least developed parts of the United States.

The waterfront is pristine, filled with diverse ecology, protected by barrier islands. It's where the wild ponies run in Assateague and Chincoteague. But the car trip down foretells a land-use fight that can only intensify. Development pressure from people looking for a piece of their very own waterfront has already widened Rt. 13, the major throughway running through this tiny peninsula. Strip and big box development has already overwhelmed the road, prompting a new throughfare to be built, designating the old Rt. 13 as a business road. There is incredible effort given to enforcement of the speed limit, but widening the road has only made it all the more difficult to drive 35 mph when cruising down at 65. (The speed limit has increased 20 mph since I started coming down here 4 years ago).

Right next to the house, there's a new development that will be going up - 16 houses on farmland. There are no regulations governing this type of development, so right-of-ways are jumbled on top of old and new property lines.

There is no regional plan, no town plan, no plan of any kind. What would be ideal, to keep the waterfront the treasure that it is, is to focus development closer to amenities - like the existing towns. The towns are beautiful, but slowly dying as people move closer to the seashore and depend more on automotive travel to get what they need. Then give all property owners rights - maybe through property taxes, to waterfront that is maintained by park service. Partner with the Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service to keep the waterfront what it is.

This is in incredibly beautiful place and we're only starting to hear about what is to come. Not much has been built in the Virginia side of things yet. In Maryland and Delaware, sprawl is much more evident. Virginia still has a shot of coming out of this turning point on the positive side.