The fight over legislation in Delaware to encourage redevelopment of vacant industrial sites along the coast has drawn opposition from environmentalists and civic groups.
Nearly two dozen groups are challenging the bill that supporters say would allow for the redevelopment of 14 current and former industrial sites.
Most are located in New Castle County.
A leading opponents is June Peterson the widow of former Republican Governor Russell Peterson who said that if her husband were alive today he would oppose the legislation.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the late governor pushed through the state’s coastal act in 1971 that prohibits new heavy industry within 2 mile strip of land on both sides of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal as well as a strip around the Delaware Inland Bays.
A letter was issued by a coalition of groups that range from the Delaware Audubon Society and the Delaware Sierra Club to the Civic League for New Castle County and the Delaware Nurses Association.
