Lewes council slams state over Village Center

Lewes Mayor and City Council say the state’s unwillingness to produce a new traffic study and improve intersections near the proposed Gills Neck Village Center makes it difficult for Sussex County Council to approve rezoning.

Lewes officials were unhappy with the state’s responses to county council questions regarding Village Center, and they didn’t hold back when discussing it at a special meeting Nov. 29. 

“This is simply unacceptable to us,” said Deputy Mayor Fred Beaufait. “And it should be unacceptable to [county council].”

Developer J.G. Townsend Jr. & Co. is seeking to rezone an 11.6-acre parcel at the intersection of Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to B-1 neighborhood business district to construct a 75,000-square-foot shopping center. The county's planning and zoning commission has recommended approval of the application.

County council left the public record open until 4:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 2, for public comment on information provided by the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to council's questions. 

Lewes council will send a quick-and-to-the-point letter with supporting documentation to county officials ahead of the Dec. 2 deadline. Beaufait urged council to keep the letter brief, as council has already been inundated with public comment over the past several months.

“The county council isn’t going to pay attention to what we send them,” he said. “It will be like throwing water on a duck’s back. I’m suggesting brevity. By being short and sweet, I think we may have a chance of at least getting their attention.” 

Lewes council has taken exception to DelDOT’s continued stance that they do not need a new Transportation Impact Study for the effected area. The last study occurred in 2006; it was reviewed by an outside consultant in 2008. DelDOT also points to a 2016 Wescoats Road area analysis in finding why a new study is not needed.

State transportation officials have put the onus on the county, saying county officials should pass an adequate public facilities ordinance to give the county more clout when it comes to requiring developers to provide road improvements.

In a brief letter drafted by Beaufait, he makes it clear that he and council disagree with DelDOT’s stance.

“[We] find their responses to be inadequate and unresponsive, totally ignoring the changes that have taken place over the last eight or more years,” he wrote. 

Councilman Rob Morgan said a rezoning must meet one of two criteria in order to be approved – the benefits to the public outweigh the detriment, and the developer takes appropriate measures to maintain the current level of service on roadways – and neither is met.

Morgan says that under a side agreement between DelDOT and the developer, DelDOT took responsibility for two intersections that the 2006 TIS study area says would fail with the development of Village Center, originally proposed in 2007 as a 521,000-square-foot shopping center – Kings Highway and Dartmouth Drive near Route 1 and Savannah Road and Old Orchard Road. In its response to the county, DelDOT says there are no current plans to address Kings Highway and Dartmouth, although a roundabout is included in the recently completed Gills Neck Road/Kings Highway Master Plan for the Lewes Gateway to the Nation Byway. A plan for Savannah and Old Orchard is slated to begin in 2023. 

Morgan says the fact that the state has no immediate plans to improve the intersections that the study says will fail is an indication that appropriate measures are not being taken to maintain operations and the application therefore should not be approved. 

“This is supposed to be the expert agency within the state providing guidance to one of the three counties within the state on what to do about an obvious problem,” said Bonnie Osler. “To essentially say ‘We don’t know what we’re going to do for the intersections we’re responsible for’ … that’s just not good government.”

In its letter to the county, Lewes council also plans to briefly address environmental issues, as an estimated 90 percent of the proposed development sits within Lewes’ water recharge area for its wells. 

Board of Public Works General Manager Darrin Gordon said BPW officials may also send a letter about DNREC’s responses; however, he said, the agency’s answers further support what he told county officials at an earlier public hearing. 

Once the public record is closed, county council can then take action on the application.