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New Stonewater phase gets preliminary Sussex nod

P&Z director says application is for a new subdivision
January 10, 2018

Story Location:
Indian Mission Road
Millsboro, DE
United States

With a 4-1 vote, the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission granted preliminary approval to an application for a cluster subdivision of 100 single-family homes on 60 acres as Phase 7 of Stonewater Creek off Indian Mission Road near Long Neck.

Developer Seven Branch LLC filed an amended application from the 70 lots approved in 2008. It's the seventh phase of the development split into two separate communities – Pelican Point is the other – on opposite sides of the road. More than 980 lots have been approved in both communities –540 in Stonewater Creek and 443 in Pelican Point.

Cluster subdivisions allow for smaller lot sizes in exchange for improved design features. Stonewater Creek is not a cluster subdivision; Pelican Point is a cluster subdivision.

That's a point of contention that raised concern with existing Stonewater Creek residents who opposed the application because of smaller lot sizes.

Lots can be 7,500 square feet in a cluster subdivision, but must be at least 20,000 square feet or half-acre lots in a traditional subdivision.

Subdivision applications are voted on only by the planning and zoning commission and do not go to county council.

Stonewater Creek resident Bishop Nowotnik told county officials a section of county code specifies that before resubdivision or alteration of density of previously subdivided land can occur, the county's planning and zoning director must give notice to all property owners in the subdivision of the pending application. In addition, the developer must provide evidence that not less than 51 percent of property owners support the application.

During the Dec. 14 meeting, Commission Chairman Marty Ross asked if that section of code pertained to this application.

“It was a new subdivision as submitted. They can ask for a cluster and tie into existing amenities,” answered Sussex Planning and Zoning Director Janelle Cornwell. “We've seen this in several other applications.”

“We don't make the rules, we abide by them,” Ross said.

Several Stonewater Creek residents had turned out with signs protesting the project asking for commissioners to keep Stonewater's half-acre lots. The signs were confiscated by a county security officer due to a county policy that does not allow signs in the building.

Commissioner Kim Hoey Stevenson voted against the application. “I didn’t think it was a superior design to the one they already had approved and was just adding more houses. The extra open space wasn’t actually open space that everyone could use,” she said.

Making the motion for approval, Commissioner Keller Hopkins said the development would be consistent with other subdivisions in the area. It would also provide a secondary access to Stonewater Creek at the Cannon Road-Indian Mission Road intersection, he said.

Hopkins said the community must have superior design features including 40 percent open space, sidewalks on both sides of all streets, 50-foot buffers from wetlands, a 60-foot buffer from existing homes, central water and sewer service, and a 20-foot buffer around the perimeter of the parcel.

The final site plan is subject to review and approval by the planning and zoning commission.

Nowotnik sent a letter to residents in the community following the meeting asking for interest in a possible lawsuit against the commission because, in his opinion, they did not follow county code when they did not notify all residents of the pending application.

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