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Property Law Keyed to Kurtz
El Di, Inc. v. Town of Bethany Beach
Citation:
477 A.2d 1066 (1984)Facts
The Holiday House restaurant was located in Bethany Beach, a community originally conceived as a quiet beach community by the Christian Missionary Society in the late 19th century. In 1900, the Bethany Beach Improvement Company (BBIC) placed restrictive covenants on many plots, prohibiting the sale of alcohol and restricting construction to residential cottages. Over time, the character of Bethany Beach changed significantly. The town was incorporated in 1909, expanding from the original 180-acre BBIC development to 750 acres, with only 15% of the land subject to the restrictive covenants. Despite the covenant prohibiting commercial buildings, commercial development began in the 1920s, and by the time of the case, 29 of the 34 commercial buildings in the town were located in the original “old-Town” section. In 1952, the town enacted a zoning ordinance establishing a central commercial district (C-1) in the old-Town section, where Holiday House was located. The practice of “brown-bagging” (customers bringing their own alcohol) had been tolerated at Holiday House and other restaurants for at least twenty years. El Di applied for a liquor license in response to increased “brown-bagging” and to better control alcohol consumption on its premises.
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