Dewey comp plan onto town council

It’s been more than 20 months since Dewey began writing its 2017 comprehensive plan, and with the recent passage of the document from planning commission to town council, the process appears to be coming down the home stretch.

During its Nov. 3 meeting, the group’s first since August, the town’s planning commission voted unanimously to hand over the document to town council.

Mike Harmer, planning commission chair, said a lot of work went into the document. He said he thinks it is excellent.

When the comprehensive plan working group began in February 2016, the deadline for completion was summer 2017, but the unexpected departure of former working group Chair David King left the group scrambling to fill the void.

Eventually, Elaine Bole agreed to shepherd the document through the remaining steps before submitting it to Dewey’s planning and zoning commission.

The planning commission received the working group’s version of the draft in April, shortly before town council received a one-year extension from the state, pushing the completion date to summer 2018. The commission had three public hearings on the document – in July, August, and the Nov. 3 meeting.

Only two members of the public spoke during the recent public hearing, and only one of those was relevant to the discussion at hand.

Marilyn Seitz, former chair of the town’s marketing committee, said the town is not focusing enough on Rehoboth Bay, and she suggested the comprehensive plan address future bay dredging.

Following the public hearing, the planning commission offered a few wording changes, but the document was essentially unchanged from the version now available on the town’s website.

Marty Seitz, planning commission member, said the document is well researched and will serve the town well.

Commission member Jimmy O’Conor said he was glad to see a financial soundness and sustainability section has been added. He also said he liked that the plan brings up the idea of a property tax, which, the document says, could be used to help pay for aging infrastructure.

As comprehensive plans are designed to do, the 88-page document touches on every aspect of life in Dewey now and issues it will be facing in the future.

With regard to transportation, that plan says Dewey envisions itself as a community where pedestrians and bicyclists can move safely, describing this as a high priority.

The document also recognizes that because the town’s utility-pole-lined sidewalks are on Coastal Highway, a majority of improvements can’t be done without the help of the Delaware Department of Transportation and Delmarva Power.

Three of the four critical community challenges are natural environment related – climate change and sea level rise; bayside and oceanside protection; and nature preservation. The fourth critical challenge is overcrowding.

The plan calls for an overall review of the town’s zoning code, with special attention paid to the town’s bulk zoning standards, the one-time expansion of nonconforming residential-use structures, and flood-prevention standards in the town’s flood zones.

Town council members briefly addressed the timeline to comprehensive plan adoption during their Nov. 11 meeting.

Commissioner Gary Persinger, council liaison to the working group and then the planning committee, said the plan was to hold a public hearing during council’s next meeting, Saturday, Dec. 9. He said it could be the last chance for members of the public to make comments on the document before council submits it to the county and state for review. 

Mayor TJ Redefer said the comprehensive plan isn’t the hot topic it once was, but, he said, public input is still important and encouraged.