Sussex comp plan shows scenarios for potential development

Planners for Sussex County’s comprehensive development plan are casting an eye toward what development in the county will look like by 2045.

“It’s to get people thinking about where and what types of development can occur. It’s not saying one of those is going to happen. These are potential different ways to look at it,” said Sussex County Planning and Zoning Director Janelle Cornwell.

County planning officials have introduced four scenarios based on trends in development. The first scenario is based on current trends, with development heavily concentrated in the eastern part of the county. According to this scenario, 64 percent of development will be in the rural areas outside the beaches, particularly between Rehoboth Beach and Millsboro.

The county’s second scenario assumes growth will be concentrated around the town centers, with an emphasis around the Route 113 and Route 13 corridors.

Third, is what county officials called the Eastern Sussex Development Scenario, with residential development directed at a slightly higher density to areas east of Route 30, encompassing an area between Milford and Gumboro.

Finally, the county put forth a mixed-use corridor of development, with development focused away from the rural areas and directed to areas surrounding the major roadways connecting towns.

The comprehensive plan is updated every 10 years; the county is looking to approve the plan by June 2018. County planners have been working on the document so far for about a year. Alexis Williams of consultant McCormick Taylor said the plan expects an increase of 46,000 full-time residents to Sussex County by 2045. All told, county officials say Sussex has grown by 35 percent since 2000, with the majority of the development occurring east of Route 30.

Of the proposed scenarios, Williams said the market will determine how development in the county shakes out. She said the first scenario, based on current trends, shows a lot of residential development in the rural areas with commercial development along the main roads like Route 9, Route 24 and Route 113.

The second scenario, she said, shows more development around the towns, while the third shows more residential development east of Route 30 than the current trend.

Williams said the mixed-use scenario anticipates residential development closer to commercial establishments, with the thought being people will want to be closer to the services they need. She said this scenario would be best for public transit opportunities, as more people would be closer to the main roads.

For those in attendance at the county’s well-attended May 16 public workshop meeting at Beacon Middle School, the biggest concerns were transportation, jobs and traffic.

Chris Pollinger, a resident of Heron Bay off Beaver Dam Road, said the county needs to fix roads such as Beaver Dam, which are heavily trafficked with cars and bicyclists but do not have bike lanes, constituting a safety issue.

Patrick Simmons, who lives off Old Landing Road, said, “The problem is, you have to slow growth. The roadways can’t handle it.”

Simmons said the job market in Sussex County is not good, with most of the work being seasonal and not paying all that well. Norman Moore, a resident of Rehoboth Beach, said the plan needs to address ways to attract businesses to Sussex County.

Trish Kelleher of Housing Alliance Delaware said the average purchase price for a home in Sussex County is $316,000 and a rental is $1,200 per month. She said more people are moving west, where the housing is more affordable, but driving back to the eastern part of the county for work, increasing the amount of traffic. Kelleher said one problem with the high price of living is it can be a deterrent to people in the medical fields taking care of an aging population because they cannot afford to live in the area.

Addressing economic development in the plan, Cornwell said, “That could take many different formats. How do we partner with people? How do we incentivize? How do we recognize the needs and wants of the people and find that balance?”

County officials plan to hold additional public workshops on the plan in the fall. No dates have been announced at this time. The Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public workshop on the plan from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, June 16, at County Council Chambers, 2 The Circle, in Georgetown.