Highland Heights under contract in Lewes

Highland Heights, the approved subdivision planned for the Fourth Street Forest in Lewes, is under contract. 

Doug Motley, principal at Jack Lingo Asset Management, said his company is working with a buyer and the deal should be final in June. 

Lewes Mayor and City Council approved the 34-home community in May 2016. Shortly after the appeal period ended, Motley said, the property was put under contract with a potential buyer. 

In Lewes, a developer has one year from approval to begin work on a project. Motley and attorney Gene Bayard appeared at the April 19 planning commission meeting to seek a one-year extension. 

“This is purely precautionary,” said Bayard about the extension request. “It is designed to protect the interests of the owners of the property who have owned this property since 1983. In the unlikely event that the property does not close and go to settlement, the owners want the ability to develop the property themselves. They don’t want to have to do this all over again.”

The planning commission unanimously voted to recommend the request be granted; it will next be considered by mayor and city council. 

The approval of Highland Heights was more than two years in the making. Introduced in August 2013, the subdivision proposal was a high contested and controversial topic at every public meeting about it. The application gained preliminary consent from the planning commission in September 2014, but when seeking final approval in January 2016, the same group recommended city council deny the application. 

Four months later, in May 2016, council voted 4-1 to approve the application, but not without attached 15 conditions. The conditions, which include a bike and pedestrian path to neighboring Highland Acres, must be met by the new owner of the property if the sale is finalized in June.