Suburbs by the Sea

"When I see this happen, it breaks my heart," Granke said. ". . . It's the height of propaganda but people are falling for it."

Larry Goldstein, the McLean-based developer of the Peninsula project, said that land-use controls were noticeably more lenient in Sussex County than he was accustomed to in the Washington suburbs. There were only two public hearings for his project, which places a $13 million golf course on a sweeping stretch of river frontage that wraps around the 800-acre parcel, and a dozen or fewer people attended, mostly just to listen without objection.

He said that state and local officials had been unprepared for the rush of development.

"Delaware was caught by surprise," he said. "They never anticipated these little beach towns would become what they have," he said.

Goldstein said Sussex County officials have no tradition of asking developers to bear some of the expense entailed by new development. He said he offered to give extra money for off-site road improvements to help make sure traffic moves steadily through the area, but that officials said it wouldn't be necessary.

He said one official told him: " 'You've got to be crazy; that's not how we do it in Delaware.' "

New projects are carefully reviewed but are usually approved, said Lawrence Lank, Sussex County's director of planning and zoning, who said the process usually takes a year and includes two public hearings. State officials also review projects that are particularly large or that could injure the environment or cause unusual traffic problems.

The rush of development on Delaware's coast is not unique to Delaware. Environmentalist Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said large developments are rising along much of the Atlantic Coast.

"Now from the water looking onto the land, you only see houses and development, not trees or dunes anymore," Tittel said. "We're making all the roads going to the beach look like Los Angeles."

But while people debate the issues in public hearings and around kitchen tables, once-pastoral Sussex County is changing rapidly. In 2004, the county issued 3,021 building permits for single-family and multi-family construction, up 78 percent from the 1,695 issued in 2000. Housing permits in 2005 will match or surpass 2004, Lank said.

Part of the reason for the increase is that big developers well known in the Washington area, including Ryan Homes, Toll Brothers, Pulte Homes and Gemcraft Homes, are bringing a new kind of development to the region. Lank said the county favors these large developments because they offer a mix of uses, not just "cookie-cutter subdivisions."

"Three or four years ago, we started to see the big boys come in," Lank said. ". . . What we had before was a farmer sold a lot, a builder got a permit and built a house. Now they are building multi-houses on multi-lots in big projects."

And builders wouldn't be building if buyers weren't buying.

"You can't stop people from moving places, and it's a beautiful place," said Mitchell Cox, 46, a real estate agent from Australia who moved to the Washington area 12 years ago. He and his wife Karen, 43, who is launching a concierge service, just bought a lot at Peninsula and plan to build a $1.6 million custom house there.

"D.C. is the capital of the world right now. It's been the most undervalued, underdeveloped city in the world and it's got a long way to catch up," Cox said, adding that he believes that it is only natural that development would boom around the seaside resorts closest to the city. "You can't stop it, . . . you've got to accept it."

And even the people who move there, and worry about future growth, soon find themselves bringing along their friends and loved ones, just as David Kanter and his long-term colleague encouraged each other to move, buying adjacent houses.

"Reasonable growth is a benefit to all people," said Kanter, whose 3,000-square-foot house in Millsboro will cost about $650,000. "There's always a tug of war between developers and homeowners. I hope there will be a reasonable balance."

His view was shared by Susan Chinnici, 50, of Ellicott City, Md., who recently bought and upgraded a $700,000 vacation home in Rehoboth Beach. She shares it with her husband, chief financial officer of a technology company, and her two teenage children, and she recently talked her sister from Pennsylvania into buying a home there as well. Still, she doesn't want to see too much growth.

"At some point you have to say enough is enough," she said. "You don't want to get rid of the quaintness of Rehoboth."