Fort DuPont Developer Violates Consumer Fraud Act
Penalties Exceed $800,000

Blue Delaware is publishing a series of blog posts documenting how our state has quietly sold almost half of Fort DuPont State Park for private development as a luxury RV campground without a vote of the General Assembly. Jack Guerin and Erica Lindsey are plaintiffs in a whistleblower lawsuit to stop construction of the campground and return this land to the State Parks Department.

Heavy equipment moved onto the campground site in April 2022, but construction stopped two months later having decimated a large forested area of the former state park. The site has been abandoned for the past two years and the public remains locked out.

The Delaware Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that a Blue Water campground in Sussex County had “Willfully Violated” Delaware’s Consumer Fraud Act. The penalties assessed by DOJ totaled $831,000.

Through a tortured process, lacking any hint of due diligence, the Fort DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation (FDRPC) attempted to contract with Blue Water as their partner to privatize a major portion of Fort DuPont State Park. Our blog posts will document that Blue Water appears to be “walking away” from this project having no further interest in this campground.

We are advocating for introduction of a General Assembly Joint Resolution which would return this protected land to the Delaware State Parks Department. Fort DuPont legislation has always been sponsored by the local legislators, so this advocacy campaign is asking Senator Nicole Poore and Representative Melissa Minor-Brown to introduce the Joint Resolution.

In mid-March, we sent the local legislators an email alerting them to this email campaign which is also targeting House Speaker Valerie Longhurst. Although the new Speaker redistricted herself out of Delaware City, she has sponsored multiple Fort DuPont bills including the original enabling legislation.

The legislators have not responded to the March email indicating that they are sticking with their original position that “there is no way to reverse the sale” of the campground. However, the Blue Delaware blog posts chronicle how Blue Water now appears to be both unqualified and unwilling to construct and operate a campground in New Castle County.

When public resources are highjacked, our society is impoverished. Our state government trumpets investments to preserve Open Space Land while secretively selling 140 acres of protected public land.

Delaware statutes have clearly established the General Assembly as the ultimate authority in land use matters. Most Delawarians assume that land acquired though the Delaware Land Protection Act is preserved in perpetuity as stated in the statute. However, paraphrasing a biblical phrase, “The State Giveth and the State Taketh Away.”