Coastal Club is a gated, resort style community of 630 homes located in Lewes, DE. Homeowners are required to join a privately owned clubhouse, called the Lighthouse Club, in order to access amenities. Membership requires both a sizable capital investment from each household upon closing and ongoing quarterly dues, in addition to the quarterly dues paid to the HOA. A household membership provides access for adult members listed on the residential deed, minor children who reside in the home, 4 complimentary guest passes, and additional paid guest passes as needed. Lighthouse Club amenities include a small gym, indoor pool and hot tub, tennis/pickle ball courts, a tot lot playground, clubhouse, and two outdoor pools. Food and beverage service is available to members on a limited schedule, for an additional cost. Ownership of the Lighthouse Club, includes the real estate group, Ocean Atlantic (the Ocean Atlantic Companies). Ocean Atlantic and the primary builder in Coastal Club, Schell Brothers, share a founder and a stake in the success of the neighborhood and Lighthouse Club.

Due to poor deliberate planning and a large volume of full-time homeowners, ongoing and persistent capacity issues plague Coastal Club, infringing upon homeowner access and enjoyment of the Lighthouse Club and its amenities. As more homes are constructed and capacity continues to increase, the strain and problems created by overcrowding continue to increase as well.

With an average of two members per household, total membership will exceed 1,260 people upon completion of the Coastal Club community. Based on available information, 1,260 people is more than 1,000 over outdoor pool capacity limits, 872 people over pool deck capacity, and 874 people over clubhouse capacity — before guests, renters, and outside memberships are factored in. Guests account for over 30% of pool usage.

For years, the concerns and frustrations over amenities built too small to serve existing homeowners, have been clearly and frequently expressed to Ocean Atlantic and the property managers we pay to employ. All management and ownership entities acknowledge the current capacity problems, as well as the future challenges it presents, but have been unwilling to have honest conversations with members, let alone find suitable, fair solutions.

Despite this, Ocean Atlantic has recently entered into an agreement with Schell Brothers, to sell Lighthouse Club memberships to Outer Banks, a neighboring community currently under construction. Once completed, Outer Banks will contain 49 homes, a small pool, and bathhouse. To compensate for the lack of additional on-site amenities in Outer Banks, Lighthouse Club memberships will be sold as an incentive for homebuyers. While Outer Banks’ residents will not be required to contribute to Coastal Club’s HOA, they will utilize HOA-owned property to access the amenities.

The list of concerns over the sale of outside memberships is extensive and has been clearly communicated to ownership on numerous occasions. As paying members of the Lighthouse Club and homeowners in the community for which it was built to serve, we want sales of such memberships to be prohibited. Coastal Club amenities are not large enough to meet current capacity needs, let alone those of a neighboring community that will not share in the additional burden, costs, and risks that we will incur from this arrangement.

We stand united in fierce opposition to granting outside membership of any kind. Instead we respectfully ask that Ocean Atlantic, in combination with Schell Brothers, put the interests of paying Coastal Club members above profit. It is our sincere hope that both entities will stop avoiding the problems caused by their planning and engineer solutions to lessen the strain already placed on amenities by current members. We believe arrangements can be made that are mutually beneficial to all parties, but are also prepared to stand against proposals that seek to enrich ownership at great personal cost and risk to members. This is a tremendous opportunity for Schell Brothers, and it’s affiliate, the Ocean Atlantic Companies, to live up to their mission statement “to maximize happiness rather than profit.” We would like to remind ownership and stakeholders that there are actual people behind the memberships that drive revenue for Ocean Atlantic and Schell Brothers. Coastal Club is our home and we’ve made substantial investments in the community. We chose Coastal Club for the gated, exclusive, resort-style living that was marketed and promised by Schell Brothers and Ocean Atlantic. Ownership has a moral, ethical, and financial obligation to Lighthouse Club members within Coastal Club, to reject any agreements that seek to further undermine, alter or hinder access as promised.