Lewes identifies five lots to sell
Two Lewes committees have exhaustively analyzed all city-owned property on the beach to determine if there are any benefits to selling city land.
Three lots on Tennessee Avenue and two others on Texas Avenue, near the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal, seem to have checked all the boxes. Mayor and city council voted unanimously March 20 to accept all recommendations from the city’s property review implementation ad hoc committee.
On Tennessee Avenue, the committee recommended the city extend water and sewer service to the lots, pave the road and then list the lots for sale.
Councilwoman Bonnie Osler, committee chair, said the lots could sell for $350,000 to $400,000 each, based on estimates provided to the committee by three brokers. After footing the bill for infrastructure, estimated at $81,000, she said, the city could net a profit of about $1.1 million.
On Texas Avenue, the committee recommended combining the two lots into a single lot and listing for sale. Osler said utilities are already available; no estimates were sought for the properties, she said.
Tennessee and Texas avenues were just a few of dozens of lots and paper streets – roads that appear on paper but do not actually exist – that were looked at by both committees.
“I’d like to think that anybody who thought the purpose of these committees was to figure out how to maximize the value of every square inch the city [owns] can put their concerns to rest,” Osler said. “At the end of the day, we ended up with four lots that can be sold.”
Along Cedar Street, the committee recommended the city remove the street designation of certain paper streets and zone them as open space. The affected paper streets are Dover, Harrington, Hartly, Georgetown, Leipsic, New Castle, Seaford, Smyrna, St. George’s, Viola and Wilmington.
Last year, the committee brought in a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control expert to perform a wetland delineation along the Cedar Street paper streets and lots to determine how much developable land remained. The report showed wetlands now dominate most of the lots.
The committee recommended the city take the same action with six platted lots off Smyrna Avenue and the North Carolina paper street off Cape Henlopen Drive.
By rezoning the properties to open space, Mayor Ted Becker said, the city could see benefits in its National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System portfolio. The program analyzes 18 credible activities, including a municipality’s building codes, flood preparedness and open space, and awards points, which determine a discount level for residents’ flood insurance.
For the Alaska, Maryland and Virginia paper streets off Cape Henlopen Drive, the committee recommended the city continue the paper street designation as the property owners on either side of the streets use the land for access.
More work is needed to make a determination on the South Carolina paper street. The committee recommended the city monitor the street for flooding and make a future determination on what to do.
The final piece of city-owned land discussed was a 22-acre parcel between American Legion Road and Cape Henlopen Drive. Previous discussion concerned using the lot for overflow beach parking; however, Osler said, the committee determined that because the lot is a federal wetland and often floods during storms, the parcel should be left vacant.
