The following is written as a response to IG Burton's defense of Sussex Zonings recommendation for zoning change for 11 acres at the corner of Gills Neck Road and Kings Highway in Lewes.
Mr. Burton:
In my opinion, the flaw with your and the other P&Z members logic for recommending approval of the zoning change from AR-1 to B-1 is that you don't consider the entire Gills Neck-Kings Highway area in your zoning change decision. You may have convinced yourself that you do, but in my opinion you don't.
The right decision for us should be based upon not just the 11 acres at the heart of the rezoning request, but the entire corridor to include the Clay Road land (still no traffic light) and the Mitchell Farm, and most importantly the remaining 54 acres adjacent to the land for which you are recommending approval.
It is not relevant that the developer has downsized this edition of their project. There is no credit to be given for using just 11 acres for commercial development at this time instead of all 65 acres when we don't know what the plan is for the other 54. The zoning is AR-1 for this parcel.
What is important is that we have a plan for all the last remaining open space parcels around Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road. This is not an infill. This is a big undeveloped area that requires planning by a lot of stakeholders, not just the developer. This in my opinion is a zoning decision that likely sets a future land use precedent for this area.
Will you and your P&Z peers guarantee that all the remaining land (150 acres?) mentioned here will remain AR-1? The water, the traffic, the school, public safety and more, and you don't look at the big picture, just 11 acres?
Very tidy.
Should local residents be taken as so naive to think we will not see additional commercial rezoning requests like this for surrounding acreage? I attended what I considered the rude P&Z meeting where developers talked about the need for the zoning change for the center, and all I could think of was the game of dominos.
It is interesting to read the Aug. 19 James Fisher article in The News Journal writing, "The Townsend farm, which along with Jack Lingo Asset Management, had a hand in developing many housing subdivisions off Gills Neck, has long hoped to build a commercial center to cater to them on that spot, as well as drawing customers from the active Del. 1 corridor."
Is this factual? The zoning request for B-1 was argued the Village Center was just to support us?
I suspect the writing is more accurate than what has been presented. If this is factual, you can see future commercial zoning requests lining up with this as the first domino. How will you say no when a large B-1 parcel is adjacent?
It is my hope Sussex Council will reject the zoning change (and overturn the poor P&Z 5-0 decision) until such a time we have a developer and community plan for all the land as to what is appropriate for residents living near the Gills Neck-Kings Highway corridor.
Leave it AR-1 until this gets figured out. Why is there a rush to make the change? The landowners own AR-1; let them build as allowed on the land they own. I am to understand a small community village center may be built to serve the local residents under AR-1?
We need more time spent on the planning piece and not as much on changing zoning piece. Please update our guidelines to reflect what is presently happening over here so we can avoid poor piecemeal land use decisions in the future.
The present method of making land use zoning decisions in a vacuum must change and this is a good place to start.
Jay Tomlinson
Lewes
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