Share: 

Council gives Woodfield Preserves six months to get underway

Change in flood maps delays 253-lot project off Broadkill Road
November 28, 2016

Story Location:
Broadkill Road
Route 1
Milton, DE
United States

A 253-lot housing project east of Route 1 off Broadkill Road will be allowed six more months to get underway.

At its Nov. 15 meeting, Sussex County Council approved a time extension requested by the developer of the Woodfield Preserves housing project adjacent to Rookery North Golf Course near Milton.

County officials had approved developer Thomas Schell's plans for a cluster subdivision on 196 acres of AR-1, agricultural-residential, zoned land. The project's final site plan was recorded Dec. 1, 2011, and faced sunset this Dec. 1. Developers have five years to get a project underway once its been approved and recorded.

The developer will have until June 1, 2017, to get the project underway.

A time extension was requested because an amended 2015 Federal Emergency Management Agency flood map that placed all lots in the community within the 100-year flood plain. That change caused the developer to delay the start of construction.

The developer was required to change the site plan to raise all lots so that the finished floor elevations were out of the flood zone. In the process, three lots were removed and the new plans had to be resubmitted to state agencies for review and approval.

In addition, sewer provider Artesian Wastewater Management requested redesign of the project's wastewater system so that sewer mains were not as deep as proposed in the original plans.

Lawrence Lank, the county's planning and zoning director, said the developer met the requirements defined in county code for a time extension because the circumstances creating the delay were beyond the developer's control.

The 196-acre tract includes 24 acres of tidal wetlands along the Broadkill River. The site plan excludes any building lots within 1,000 feet of the river. In addition, the developer has proposed cutting down less than 1.5 acres of the site's 43 acres of woodlands.

 

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter