Оңтүстік Бетани қаласы: Тыныш демалыс орны

South Bethany is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town is 449, a decrease of 8.7% over the previous decade. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. South Bethany is popularly considered one of "The Quiet Resorts", along with its direct neighbor to the north, Bethany Beach, and its neighbor to the south, Fenwick Island. This is in contradistinction to the crowded atmosphere of the more popular Dewey Beach and the cosmopolitan bustle of nearby Rehoboth Beach. Assisting South Bethany's reputation as a "quiet" place is the presence of Delaware Seashore State Park – a six mile long barrier island providing a substantial buffer from Dewey Beach's noise – to the north of Bethany Beach, as well as the relative quiet provided by a large unincorporated area of private condominiums and multimillion dollar beach homes between the park and Bethany Beach. To the south, South Bethany is insulated from busy Ocean City, Maryland, by Fenwick Island State Park and Fenwick Island itself.

South Bethany is located at (38.5165008, –75.0529585). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1 km2), of which nearly the full 0.5 square miles (1 km2) is land and 1.89% is water. The views and landscapes of the area are very popular with the locals and vacationers. As the community is located on the local barrier islands, it is subject to tides, which can fluctuate up to multiple feet per day. As of the census of 2000, there were 492 people, 253 households, and 170 families residing in the town. The population density was There were 1,137 housing units at an average density of The racial makeup of the town was 99.19% White, 0.20% Asian, and 0.61% from two or more races. There were 253 households, out of which 9.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.9% were married couples living together, 3.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% were non families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.94 and the average family size was 2.32. In the town, the population was spread out, with 8.7% under the age of 18, 2.0% from 18 to 24, 14.0% from 25 to 44, 40.0% from 45 to 64, and 35.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 60 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.2 males. The median income for a household in the town was $67,125, and the median income for a family was $89,666. Males had a median income of $61,250 versus $37,500 for females. The per capita income for the town was $53,624. None of the families and 1.6% of the population were living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and 3.1% of those over 64.

South Bethany has a town manager form of government. In addition to an elected mayor, the town has a six member elected town council. It has a local police department as well as a beach patrol. Mayors Parking permits are required along selected streets in South Bethany between May 15 and September 15. DART First State provides bus service to South Bethany in the summer months along Beach Bus Route 208, which heads north to the Rehoboth Beach Park and Ride to connect to other Beach Bus routes and the Route 305 bus from Wilmington and south to the 144th Street Transit Center in Ocean City, Maryland to connect to Ocean City Transportation's Coastal Highway Beach Bus.

Delmarva Power, a subsidiary of Exelon, provides electricity to South Bethany. Chesapeake Utilities provides natural gas to the town. Artesian Water Company, a subsidiary of Artesian Resources, provides water to South Bethany. Sussex County operates the South Bethany Sanitary Sewer District, which provides sewer service to the town. Trash and recycling collection in South Bethany is provided by Republic Services. The portion of Delaware in which South Bethany lies was subject to a lengthy legal dispute, Penn vs. Baltimore, that broke out in 1683, as to whether the land belonged to the Province of Maryland or the Province of Pennsylvania. While it dragged on, William Penn granted the Delaware Colony its own legislature in 1701, establishing it as a separate colony. The dispute over the boundaries of the three colonies was not resolved until 1759, when the parties to the dispute agreed that the area where South Bethany now lies was part of Delaware. Outside of Penn vs. Baltimore, recorded European interest in the land that was to become South Bethany dates to at least 1687, when an Englishman, Matthew Scarborough, had much of the area of what are now Bethany Beach and South Bethany surveyed, the 500 acres (202 hectares) surveyed in the northern part of the area becoming known as "Scarborough's Adventure," while a parcel to its south became known as "Middlesex." He "took up" – i. e., took possession of – the two parcels of land in 1688, and they were renamed "North Petherton" and "South Petherton." The part of the area that would become South Bethany was included in a portion of South Petherton at the head of Little Assawoman Bay about 2 mile (3 km) south of what is now Bethany Beach granted to Scarborough under a Maryland land patent in 1695. English settlers established farms in parts of what is now South Bethany. In 1741, Englishman William Evans was granted a land patent under a survey that combined North and South Petherton into a single parcel of land. Access to the community was via Delaware Route 14, known as Coastal Highway, a paved two lane road with no shoulders. As the community grew, Route 14 became inadequate for the automobile traffic South Bethany generated, and in 1958 Route 14 was expanded into a four lane divided highway; it was redesignated as a portion of Delaware Route 1 in the 1970s. At the time, the Delaware Army National Guard would drive its tracked self propelled anti aircraft guns from its barracks north of Bethany Beach down Coastal Highway through Bethany Beach and South Bethany to its training grounds just south of South Bethany, where it would engage in antiaircraft training, firing at target drones flying over the Atlantic.

Although Iggie Hall of the South Bethany Corporation tried to have South Bethany incorporated as a town even in its early years in order to improve services in the community, she had no success. Meanwhile, a group of South Bethany residents formed the South Bethany Association to address community services and needs. A destructive nor'easter known as the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 struck the area from March 6 to 8, 1962. Delaware's Atlantic coast experienced severe damage from very high tides and waves more than 40 feet (12 m) high breaking on its beaches. In South Bethany, the storm destroyed 37 oceanfront homes. The 1962 storm gave a new impetus to incorporation, because as an unincorporated community South Bethany could not receive federal funding to recover from the disaster. The Delaware General Assembly rebuffed the initial efforts to incorporate the community after the storm, claiming that its tiny year round population disqualified it from incorporation. Plans for Sea Colony met bitter opposition from longtime South Bethany and Bethany Beach residents, who were dismayed at the thought of high rises and large crowds in the area. Opponents of Sea Colony marched in protest and engaged in protracted legal efforts to block construction of the resort, but the property lay outside the town limits of both South Bethany and Bethany Beach, and their efforts to block the construction of Sea Colony failed. In 1971, South Bethany hired its first police officer. On June 18, 1971, its first lifeguards went to work to ensure safety on the town's Atlantic beach. In 1972, South Bethany expanded southward, annexing the York Beach community – a plot of land known from 1812 to 1946 as "Derickson's Venture" – and the Paradise Shores community adjacent to and to the west of York Beach. The annexation of York Beach brought York Beach Mall – opened in 1959 and expanded in 1965 – into South Bethany, giving the town its first and only commercial area. In the same year, South Bethany began installing a central sewer system, In January 1981, the Delaware Supreme Court lifted Sussex County's ban on construction on the dune, and development of the beach area resumed. During the mid 1980s, a beach replenishment project took place along the town's Atlantic coast to recover sand lost during major storms. On November 19, 1987, South Bethany expanded its boundary westward by annexing the Cat Hill community, and on March 22, 1992, Cat Hill conveyed 22 acres (8.9 hectares) of wetlands to the town. the town began installation of an underground propane storage tank behind the town hall to feed the system in October 2003, In 2007, South Bethany demolished its original town hall and replaced it with a new town hall and police building. The State of Delaware issued a mandatory evacuation order for beachfront residents and visitors in the town when Hurricane Sandy threatened the area on October 28 and 29, 2012. In 2014, South Bethany's Community Enhancement Committee created the Art Board initiative, which invited artists from the area to submit artwork with a coastal theme for display on outdoor trash receptacles along Ocean Drive and Seaside Drive. By 2015, the town consisted of approximately 1,387 properties with fewer than 175 vacant lots remaining, and its year round population was 600. The beach and dune suffered additional damage during a winter storm that struck the area from January 22 to 24, 2016. In February 2016, officials announced that there was no funding available for replenishment of South Bethany's beach and dune during 2016, and that replenishment would not take place until 2017, in accordance with the schedule established before the two storms hit. In 2020, the United States Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to a local developer to maintain the beach and dunes damaged in the storms.

Residents are in the Indian River School District.