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Sussex council approves three projects

Sussex Consortium gets final green light to proceed
March 20, 2017

At its March 7 meeting, Sussex County Council approved three applications in the Cape Region.

With a 5-0 vote, council approved a conditional-use application filed by the Cape Henlopen School District for a new Sussex Consortium school on a 25-acre parcel on AR-1, agricultural-residential, land along Sweetbriar Road near Lewes.

“This is a very special school for special students and staff,” said Superintendent Bob Fulton. “We are excited. This is long overdue. The consortium has taken whatever building is not being used. They will finally have a school built for their needs.”

The Sussex Consortium – started as a pilot program in 1975 – serves 280 students from all over the county ages 3 to 21 and is open all year. Over the years, the school has developed into an award-winning program.

At build-out, the school will be 98,000 square feet, about the size of the new Love Creek Elementary School currently under construction. The first phase would include more than 60,000 square feet of space with more than 30,000 square feet added in the future if funding were available. At full build-out, the school will serve 410 students.

Covering 100 percent of the cost, the state has agreed to fund $1.8 million for land purchase and $22 million for a 67,000-square-foot school.

Also with a 5-0 vote, council approved a conditional-use application filed by R&K Partners for a 9,900-square-foot office complex at 1537 Savannah Road near Wescoats Corner in Lewes.

Dr. Vinay Hosmane, a Newark cardiologist and Cape Henlopen High School graduate, said he wants to open a Lewes office and bring more doctors with him, especially more primary care physicians and another dermatologist.

His father, Ramachandra Hosmane, is a urologist who has been in practice in Lewes for 39 years with an office on Savannah Road.

Hosmane said the facility could offer rental space on a rotating basis to allow more doctors access to the Lewes area.

Delmarva Power and Light Co. officials can move forward with a $7 million project to expand the Midway substation along Route 1 near the Dartmouth Drive intersection in Lewes. Council unanimously approved a conditional use for the project.

The project will include a second transformer, additional transmission and distribution breakers, and three separate transmission lines – one from Cool Spring to Five Points, one from Five Points to Midway, and another from Midway to Rehoboth Beach. Work is expected to be completed in a year. Officials say the project is needed to keep pace with growth and improve reliability to the system that serves the Cape Region.

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