diff --git a/rewrite.php b/rewrite.php
index 3b8845b78c00..1ad69c1ca6c8 100644
--- a/rewrite.php
+++ b/rewrite.php
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
  * functionality so the site will operate as normal.
  */
 
+// If we're serving the site locally, then we need
+// to let the application know that we're in development mode
+$_SERVER['CI_ENVIRONMENT'] = 'development';
+
 $uri = urldecode(parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH));
 
 $path = __DIR__.'/public/'.ltrim($uri,'/');
@@ -21,9 +25,4 @@
 
 // Otherwise, we'll load the index file and let
 // the framework handle the request from here.
-
-// If we're serving the site locally, then we need
-// to let the application know that we're in development mode
-$_SERVER['CI_ENVIRONMENT'] = 'development';
-
 require_once __DIR__.'/public/index.php';