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Update: Seven-hour Village Center hearing draws crowd

Lewes residents demand protection of city’s well field
August 29, 2016

Story Location:
Kings Highway
Gills Neck Road
Lewes, DE 19958
United States

Debate over the rezoning of an 11.6-acre parcel of land for Gills Neck Village Center raged for nearly seven hours before Sussex County Council Aug. 23.

Residents and members of Lewes Partnership for Managing Growth asked council to delay its vote to allow time to obtain more information on traffic, wellhead protection and the developer's future plans.

During the crowded public hearing, council was asked to request an updated traffic impact study, a new wellhead delineation map and even conduct a vote of residents to see how they stand on the application. Residents said no decision should be made on the rezoning without a master plan for the Kings Highway/Gills Neck Road area to aid in development decisions.

“You need to have real numbers,” said LPMG President John Mateyko.

Dennis Crawford, who lives in Senators and heads the group Consortium of Communities, asked council to keep the public record open and help facilitate a vote of Gills Neck Road residents within Lewes city limits.

Vince Robertson, the county's assistant attorney, said that would not take place. “We don't have a method for doing that. It's why we have public hearings,” he said.

However, at the end of the marathon hearing, council voted to defer on a decision and to keep the public record open for one week with the possibility of an extension. “It's too late now to ask questions – we'd just be shooting from the hip,” said Councilman George Cole, R-Ocean View. “We need time to gather our thoughts.”

 

A reduction in size over the years

Developer J.G. Townsend Jr. & Co. has filed a rezoning application from agricultural-residential, AR-1, to B-1, neighborhood business district, for an 11.6-acre parcel at the intersection of Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road, change that could pave the way for the long-debated Village Center. Under B-1 zoning, the commercial area would be restricted to less than 75,000 square feet.

Lawrence Lank, the county's director of planning and zoning, said the proposed center is about the same size as the Villages of Five Points shopping center, anchored by a Food Lion grocery store and zoned B-1.

At its July 28 meeting, the county's planning and zoning commission voted 5-0 in favor of the application.

The project was originally rolled out in 2007, when the developer proposed a 520,000-square-foot mixed-use commercial, residential and office space complex on 60 acres. Since then, it has been scaled back, first in 2009 to 387,000 square feet on 46 acres, and then to 215,000 square feet on 37 acres in 2015.

Nick Hammonds, of Jack Lingo Asset Management and project manager for J.G. Townsend, said the 2015 application has been put on hold and replaced with the current application. “The vision for the property is a neighborhood shopping center to serve residents of the Gills Neck Road corridor and the greater Lewes area,” he said.

He said the intent would be to anchor the center with a speciality grocery store of 20,000 to 30,000 square feet with other small shops possibly including a restaurant, fitness center, bank, pharmacy, salon and coffee shop.

Hammonds said the developer would not allow a gas station or dry cleaning operation to open in the center to alleviate environmental concerns.

“The architectural theme would be similar to Second Street to bring the historic nature and charm of downtown Lewes to the highway,” he said.

If approved, at buildout, Hammonds said, the center is expected to provide 120 new permanent jobs.

Even at the reduced size, opponent Mateyko said the proposed center is out of scale according to industry standards. He said a center of about 20,000 to 30,000 square feet is all that is needed to serve the residents of Gills Neck Road. “The goal is convenient, close and quick, but they are going about it contrary to all data in trade guidelines,” he said, adding it would take between 6,000 and 8,000 households to support a 75,000-square-foot shopping center.

He said at buildout of proposed projects, there will be 2,000 households in the Gills Neck area to complement the existing 1,600 households in Lewes city limits.

He said shoppers from other areas would be required to support a center of the proposed scale, which would add to traffic woes in the area.

 

Would rezoning decision set a precedent?

When asked by council, Hammonds said the developer does not have a plan for the remaining 53 acres on the parcel. “The market will dictate that,” he said. “There has been some thought to an age-restricted apartment complex, but it's only an idea. There is no concrete development plan,” he said.

Several residents testified that allowing commercial rezoning on the parcel would trigger a domino effect on sections of undeveloped land along Kings Highway.

“It would be precedent-setting and difficult for council to deny future commercial applications on adjacent land,” said Jake Tomlinson, a Senators resident. “There could be shopping centers from Dartmouth Drive to the Lewes city limits. You need a master plan to make better decisions.”

“There is no grand design for Kings Highway,” said Peter Strub, a resident of Bay Crossing. “If you approve B-1, you open the dike.” He said the rezoning is out of character with the area that includes small businesses on small tracts of land.

 

Developer has 30-year plan in progress

Hammonds said the commercial center is the culmination of a 30-year plan by the landowner to develop the 700 family-owned acres along Gills Neck Road. The plan started with the development of the Wolfe Runne and Wolfe Pointe subdivisions from the 1980s into the 2000s.

“I can't believe there have been no thoughts to the balance of the land,” Cole said. “Maybe we should leave the record open to get the continuation of their plan. I'm curious why you would get to this point, and there is no more planning.”

“There is no reason,” said Gene Bayard, the developer's attorney. “The linchpin is this application for the remainder of the plan. Future development is predicated by this corner.”

“Where was this 30-year plan?” asked Crawford. “There was no disclosure to homebuyers and when I asked what was going on in the field, I was not told about commercial.”

“What happens to the rest of the property?” asked John Sergovic, an attorney representing LPMG. “They can gradually add and add to the 30-year plan and eventually get the 520,000 square feet of commercial.”

Lewes Mayor Ted Becker said the town council is opposed to the application without a full disclosure of development plans for the entire parcel. “We need a global plan so we don't have to keep coming back here,” he said, adding there are 240 acres of AR-1 land in the Kings Highway area.

He said the council shouldn't act until they receive a firm commitment from the developer on future plans for the entire parcel.

 

The debate over protection of Lewes wells

As in the planning and zoning hearing, one of the major issues that surfaced during council's hearing involved the City of Lewes' five wells across Kings Highway from the property. The entire 11.6 acres is within the wellhead protection area, which is defined in a 2003 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control map.

Lank read an Aug. 23 letter expressing DNREC officials' concerns with significant impervious cover in the wellhead protection area and the runoff from the property, and its impact on the groundwater that feeds the shallow aquifer and Lewes' shallow wells.

In a revised 2016 PLUS report, DNREC officials recommended that the developer exceed the requirements of the county's ordinance to afford “much needed protection.”

The developer's team stressed that regulations within the county's source water protection ordinance would protect the Lewes well field. “This development can be done within the wellhead-protection area and will comply with the ordinance,” said Ring Lardner, the developer's engineer.

Robertson echoed that comment. “Any property owner would have to comply during site plan review,” he said. “It deals with impervious cover and the type of development that can be done.”

Darrin Gordon, general manager of Lewes Board of Public Works, asked council – through the site-plan process – to resolve Lewes' concerns about protecting the well field, requiring the developer to install monitors and establish an escrow account to ensure ongoing maintenance and mitigation if ever required.

“If the water source is harmed, why should the people of Lewes pay for it?” he asked.

“BPW has no authority to enforce. We come as a beggar asking for reasonable common sense,” Gordon said. The well field is located outside Lewes city limits in unincorporated Sussex County.

Attorney Bayard said the biggest threat to the Lewes wells is the lack of stormwater management along Kings Highway, which passes within 80 feet of the wells. “When shoulders were added with not even basic stormwater management, why didn't Lewes ask about that?” he said. “The only modern stormwater management in the area will be this project.”

Cole asked Gordon if the county's ordinance was sufficient to protect the wells. “It helps, but not to the degree it should,” he answered. The county ordinance, he said, falls very short of what the state recommended.

Cole also asked whether the county could require monitors at the site. “It's not something we typically do on a site plan, but I will look at the ordinance – there is some latitude,” Robertson said.

“Protection of our water should be No. 1 on your list,” Gordon said, adding it was unreasonable to suggest that Lewes buy the property to set up a buffer. “Where would we get $30 million?” he asked. “It needs to be about what is right and not who has the most money.”

“I'm sitting here listening and thinking we've got to do better. This is disgraceful that the county and town are not working together,” said Councilwoman Joan Deaver, D-Rehoboth Beach, during the discussion over wellhead protection.

Gordon said the developer should also be part of the communication process. He said city officials have not yet seen the developer's recent hydrologist’s report.

Lardner provided a map for council highlighting public wells owned by Tidewater Utilities and the City of Rehoboth Beach along Route 1 and other main roadways near commercial areas. “They all comply with the source water protection ordinance, and there has been no opposition,” he said.

He noted that if approved, the current Townsend farm irrigation well would be taken off line. He said the agricultural well draws an average of 18 million gallons a year from the same aquifer as the Lewes wells.

BPW's Gordon said that represents about 4 percent of the water used by Lewes during an average year.

Lardner said the nearest well would be 175 feet from the proposed project, well outside the 100-foot safety zone. He said under the ordinance, the same amount of water must be recharged as is currently recharged in open space.

Deaver pointed out that regulations in the county's source water protection ordinance are not as strict as recommended by state environmental officials. “There is real concern from DNREC in the PLUS report,” she said.

Robertson said if the application is approved, the developer would have to follow regulations contained within the county code as it's written today.

Fran Mahon, a Wolfe Pointe resident, said a 2003 DNREC report designated the parcel as an area that required a higher level of protection. He said with the amount of development that has occurred in the area over the past decade, there is no reason to dispute that in 2016.

In addition, he said, DNREC scientists say that commercial development reduces recharge by 85 percent.

Mahon said the Lewes aquifer is undefined and can expand its capture zone and look for water sources that could include untreated stormwater ponds. “We are talking about accepting an undue risk,” he said. “We can't bet on hope. Unbiased DNREC officials recommend against development in wellhead protection areas. We need to avoid and not mitigate.”

“This is the last chance we have to comment, but we are not supposed to talk about the site plan, and there is a question mark around the other 55 acres,” said Lewes resident Sumner Crosby.

If the application is approved, the preliminary and final site plans must then be reviewed and approved by the county's planning and zoning commission – but that process occurs without public input.

He said scale and location matter. “With this rezoning there will be a change in the quality and amount of water of Lewes,” said the former EPA worker, who is a geologist and environmental planner.

 

 

 NEXT WEEK: The traffic debate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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