Imagine the outrage if a contractor attempted to establish a bedroom community of over 1,500 suburban-style homes adjacent to the less than 2,000 homes and gardens of the historic City of Lewes. That didn't happen, but one by one, over a period of years, eight separate developments along Gills Neck Road were approved by Sussex County - without the outrage but with the same outcome; 1,500 houses on the Lewes border.
Kings Highway is now in the developer's sights and this time a "modest" size Village Center is the stalking horse. If commercial buildings are allowed anywhere along Kings Highway, under any zoning or non-conforming conditional use arrangement, the precedent will be set for unlimited additional commercial development along this highway. Ron MacArthur reports that "[Sen. Ernie] Lopez said whatever application is approved for the [Village Center] parcel sets a precedent for what happens across the street where a large parcel is for sale." (Gazette; 2/5/16) The large parcel mentioned is 57.1 acres fronting on Kings Highway and priced at $30 million. It should be noted that the few commercial establishments that now exist are already cited by J. G. Townsend Jr. & Co. as a precedent for its shopping center.
Residents of Old Lewes have every reason to fear Kings Highway becoming a strip mall resembling Route 1 with its own traffic nightmare. Allowing the proposed Village Center would be a tragic move in this direction and must be prevented.
A few small shops could be a welcome addition to the Gills Neck community if properly located at a respectable distance from Kings Highway and Route 1, and where their size and number would be limited. Between the Senators-Governors border and the entrance to Showfield along Gills Neck Road would be such a location.
There are a number of familiar issues that militate against the proposed Village Center such as those dealing with fresh water, traffic, student safety, and so forth. However, an insidious problem of conflict of interest is also in play. When the county government rules on the merits of a building application, it is quite aware that it will receive a hefty realty transfer tax only if it approves the application. The conflict stems from the fact that the county is receiving payment from the building industry that it regulates. The transfer tax is not a trivial matter: It is Sussex County’s greatest revenue source, amounting to $22 million in 2015.
The transfer tax is a state tax that is presently shared with Delaware’s counties and municipalities. There would be no tax-related conflict of interest if the state would end its policy of sharing and instead provide the counties and municipalities with periodic, formula-based grants unrelated to land use decisions or transfer tax receipts.
Conflicts of any sort notwithstanding, in our democratic republic, We the People are sovereign and our elected officials act on our behalf and in conformance with our laws. In our system, landowners have the limited right to use their land in any way that is consistent with its zoning designation, but they do not have the right to change that designation—that authority rests with the people.
Consequently, members of the Sussex County Council have the duty to know the views of their constituents and to vote in reasonable conformance with these views. Open and public meetings of the council serve this educational purpose as do other channels of communication between the council and the public.
In the case of the Village Center proposal, the majority of the public has expressed its opposition based on specific arguments involving the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Since the landowner and developer have no special rights, and county council is ethically bound to represent its constituents, the council can reasonably be expected to vote to disapprove the Village Center proposal. If it does not, the only explanation will be that the council members ascribe a higher value to the transfer tax than they do to the views of their constituents.
David L. Greer
Lewes
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