Residents oppose scaled-back fitness center plan

Even with a scaled-back site plan, many residents who live close to a proposed fitness-therapy center in Lewes say it’s too large for the surrounding neighborhood.

Quail Valley 1525 LLC has filed a conditional-use application to construct Gateway Motion and Fitness on six acres just outside Lewes city limits. A conditional use is required because the parcel is zoned AR-1, agricultural-residential, and not commercial.

During a May 23 public hearing, county council members heard changes to a previous plan. They also heard from many residents opposed to the project that it's not compatible with the surrounding residential area.

Residents pointed out that the proposed building would contain more than an acre, slightly less than the size of a football field, including the end zones.

Glenn Mandalas, the developers' attorney, said the new site plan presented to county council that day reflected most of the conditions imposed on the project by the planning and zoning commission. At its April 6 meeting, commissioners voted 4-1 recommending approval of the application.

Because a new site plan had been presented, council voted to leave the public record open until 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 20, for written comments. The pubic record can be viewed weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the county's planning and zoning department.

Changes from original plan

Mandalas said the size of the building has been reduced by 10,000 square feet to just over 56,600 square feet, the height has been reduced from 40 feet to 32.5 feet and the number of parking spaces has been reduced by more than 100 spaces to 200 spaces.

In addition, he said, the new plan includes a 20-foot vegetated buffer with an eight-foot fence on the perimeter of the property and a 40-foot setback from all residential property lines except an area of 30 feet behind the proposed facility that borders a section of the Villages of Five Points East Village community. A 40-foot setback is another condition placed on the application by the planning and zoning commission.

“The revisions go a long way to conforming with planning and zoning recommendations,” he said. “The plan is now dramatically better.”

However, Mandalas said, the developer is struggling with a condition concerning the hours of operation. The commission's conditions would place hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday-Friday and 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.

Mandalas said the center would need extended hours to remain competitive and provide hours its membership would require. He suggested 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.

If approved, developer/owner Rich Garrett will close and relocate Midway Fitness and Racquetball to the site at 1523 Savannah Road. Among other amenities, the new facility would include four racquetball courts, a six-lane pool and therapy pool.

Garrett said he wants to build the new facility east of Route 1 as close to Lewes as possible for easy accessibility, especially for Parkinson's disease members who would use the facility for therapy. “Location is a big part of this,” he said.

Garrett said he would expect membership to grow to about 2,000 at the new facility. He said there is not enough space at the current 10,000-square-foot Midway building to provide therapy and other programs. With additional space, Garrett said, more therapy programs could be offered to more local residents suffering with movement disabilities.

A question of size, compatibility

The major concern raised by opponents is the size of the proposed facility. Even reduced to 56,600 feet, residents say the center would not be compatible with other similar uses on the Savannah Road corridor.

Jan Allamras, a resident of East Village, said she was representing residents in her community as well as residents along Savannah Road and in nearby Covey Creek. She said her presentation was aimed at showing the proposed facility's compatibility with existing professional and medical offices in the immediate area.

The largest stand-alone commercial building is 19,000 square feet, while the tallest commercial building adjacent to a residential area is approximately 25 feet, she said. The largest two-building complex, Savannah Road Professional Center – one of the newest conditional-use projects in the area – is 25,000 square feet, she said.

She said nearly all of the existing professional offices have large setbacks of at least 50 feet from residential areas and almost all do not have night or weekend hours.

To remain consistent with existing professional and medical office buildings in the area, Allamras proposed the following restrictions for commercial buildings:

• Limited in size to 25,000 square feet.

• Height not to exceed 25 feet.

• Construction to reflect a residential look.

• Hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday and no Sunday hours.

Councilman George Cole, R-Ocean View, echoed concerns expressed by residents about the size of the proposed facility. “There are concerns about impacts on the surrounding area. How do you justify compatibility?” he asked Mandalas.

Mandalas told council that a fitness/therapy center was permitted as a conditional use in AR-1 zoning. “You have to ask yourself if there is an overwhelming concern for the health, safety or welfare of the residents to deny it. Otherwise, denial is inappropriate,” he said.

“Is the size such an overwhelming factor that you have to deny it?” he asked council. “I don't think there is substantial evidence on the record.”

Mandalas said since 1980 at least 28 conditional-use applications have been approved in the Savannah Road area.

Council President Mike Vincent, R-Seaford, asked Mandalas to show him a conditional-use project the same size as the proposed fitness/therapy center.

“There is not one this size,” the attorney answered.

Vincent said most of the other projects were either converted homes or built in a residential fashion. “All I see here is a large metal building,” Vincent said.

“We would consider other exterior options,” Mandalas said.

“It would need to fit in with the area,” Vincent said.

East Village resident Bob Viscount said he was frustrated that the commission's conditions did not address the core issues of traffic and the size of the building. “The commission was blind to the absurdity of the size and scope of this and a lack of concern with the character of the surrounding residential area,” he said.

“This is grossly inconsistent with all other existing conditional uses,” he said. “This needs to be on commercial property.”

Viscount said the proposed facility is almost as large as the nearby Weis Market shopping center, five times larger than the existing Midway facility and more than three times larger than any other existing conditional-use project in the area.

Concerns with traffic on Savannah Road

Several residents noted that Savannah Road is one of the main entrances to Lewes, used by emergency vehicles and school and Beebe Healthcare traffic. The entrance and exit to the proposed facility would be on Savannah Road.

Residents said making left-hand turns onto and off Savannah Road has become an issue. They said because of traffic, members exiting the fitness center wanting to make a left turn would likely choose to make a right-hand turn instead onto Savannah Road and use Parker Run in the Villages of Five Points, which would increase traffic in the residential community.