Rehoboth Beach officials say canopies lined up on the beach are causing problems, and they are considering banning them from the resort’s beaches, effective this summer.

Commissioner Stan Mills said police Chief Keith Banks and Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Kent Buckson are concerned about what amounts to campsites on the beach: canopies are strung together, some with portable changing rooms and grills for cooking on the beach.

Mills said Buckson, Banks and others say canopies block the view of lifeguards; block the view of the ocean for people on the beach; increase the risk of fire from cooking; facilitate hiding alcohol; and the canopies could be a safety hazard if not moored down. He said Buckson reported a tent that had its own toilet inside.

“Would you want one of these things to come on the beach and set up next to you?” Mills asked. “It’s not a campsite. Why are we allowing it?”

Mills said Buckson referred to the proliferation of tents as “tent cities.”

City Manager Sharon Lynn said, “It certainly has increased, that I have seen, and certainly the complaints have increased.”

Mayor Sam Cooper said this past summer he got the feeling people believed they could set up housekeeping on the beach.

“Is that appropriate?” Cooper asked.

“It is a problem, and it is getting worse. It’s not a campground,” said Commissioner Lorraine Zellers.

Cooper said there is nothing in city code on canopies, although there is a ban on fires on the beach in the summer.

Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Carol Everhart said her office had also received multiple complaints about canopies and tents on the beach.

The commissioners then dove into what can be done, with Commissioner Paul Kuhns recommending allowing canopies but with open sides and mandating a distance canopies must keep from one another. Commissioner Patrick Gossett asked how that would be enforced, and suggested keeping the law simple. Gossett recommended banning canopies and allowing only umbrellas on the beach.

“One pole, one umbrella. Done,” Gossett said. “It’s a big change. It’s a multilevel issue we’re dealing with, and we should be as clean and simple as possible, at least for the first season.”

Mills favored an approach that split the difference, allowing canopies but with size limitations, no sides and an exception that would allow smaller shade tents for infants and people with disabilities. Zellers said canopies should be banned from May to September.

Cooper said, “I think that’s one of the questions you have to ask. Do we need to allow canopies? Do we need to let people take up more and more space to the exclusion of other people?”

Gossett said the commissioners should be as expedient as possible in doing whatever they are going to do to begin a public education campaign.

Mills said he hopes to have a first draft of an ordinance by the commissioners’ Friday, Jan. 20 regular meeting to continue discussion.