Land-use decisions involve more than just land

Bacon and eggs. Salt and pepper. Coffee and doughnuts.

Some words go together so well, it’s hard to think of one without the other.

How about land use? What goes naturally with that common - and sometimes politically charged - term?

A short while ago, I wouldn’t have had a ready answer myself.

But that was before last month’s forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Sussex County.

The forum, in anticipation of Sussex County’s creation of a new comprehensive plan in 2018, was about land use and … transportation.

As I was to learn, land use and transportation are even more closely tied than bacon and eggs. You can skip the bacon and still enjoy a delicious scrambled eggs breakfast (especially with a little onion, cheese and hot sauce).

But a comprehensive plan that doesn’t take into account transportation is hardly worthy of the name. It’s not a plan. It’s a recipe for sprawl.

And traffic congestion, pollution and for degrading our environment. The list goes on.

Marcia Scott, a policy scientist for the University of Delaware’s Institute of Public Administration, talked about how America changed after “we fell in love with our cars.”

About 50 years ago, she said, we began drifting away from traditional development around towns.

Now many neighborhoods are isolated. That’s especially true of the Cape Region, where many developments are springing up west of Route 1.

You have to drive in and out of your community, Scott said. There’s no place to walk.

(That’s not true of where I live, in the Village of Five Points, a community created through the vision of the late Craig Hudson. It’s walkable, offers a mix of housing and includes a variety of retail and restaurants. But communities like these are the exception.)

And the issues go beyond sprawl, traffic congestion and the loss of our natural heritage.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, spoke recently on The Diane Rehm Show about the economic impacts of transportation decisions. She described it as a civil rights issue.

“Access to jobs, access to mobility, reducing housing segregation,” Ifill said, “all of these things are deeply dependent on transportation decisions that happen in many ways out of sight and out of mind.”

If we want a strong economy, people have to be able to get to work.

Ifill described how in West Baltimore, at 5 o’clock in the morning, while it’s still dark, women wait for buses to take them to their jobs at Johns Hopkins Hospital, on the east side of the city.

What does that mean, she asked, for the children of those women, having to get to school by themselves, perhaps not having breakfast?

Not our problem? Fact is, we face a similar situation.

Change some details and Ifill could be describing Sussex County. Affordable middle class housing has largely disappeared in coastal Sussex.

Another speaker at the LWV forum, Mike Tyler, former president of the Citizens’ Coalition, said many residents can afford homes only in western-most Sussex.

That means people are moving farther away from the often low-paying service jobs created by our tourism-driven economy.

They either have to drive, which means more traffic congestion, or they have to take a bus, which can be difficult and time-consuming.

One positive development was reported by Sen. Ernie Lopez at his recent coffee with constituents event.

When he was first elected, he said, there was a disconnect between the county and state regarding transportation.

Now, he said, the two governments - and officials from both sides of the aisle - are talking.

And not just about immediate problems. They’re looking at where the growth may be coming 20 years from now and how to fund the needed infrastructure.

Judging by the questions about roads that day, we have a long way to go. But at least we’ve started addressing the problem.

Another way will be with the county’s comprehensive plan, which will be the topic for another LWV forum at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 13, at Council Chambers in Georgetown.

Also at the LVW meeting, Scott showed a slide of a strip mall surrounded by a huge parking lot. According to Scott, these shopping centers are losing their appeal.

People today, she said, prefer “authentic” shopping experiences downtown or they go online.

“Many land-use planners, real estate professionals and developers are saying that the biggest trend of the next generation will be conversion of the dead and dying strip malls,” Scott said.

What Scott says are “dead and dying” strip malls would be a good description of the proposed Overbrook Town Center. At 850,000 square feet, it would be larger than all the outlets combined and include spaces for 5,000 cars.

Makes you wonder if such a development makes sense for Sussex.

We could find out as early as today (April 12) about Sussex County Council’s decision.


Don Flood is a former newspaper editor living near Lewes. He can be reached at floodpolitics@gmail.com.