Village Center traffic conditions not properly addressed

DelDOT's reply to Sussex County Council's questions regarding the rezoning application for The Village Center clearly does not provide any good reason to approve the application.

Rather, the letter raises more questions - questions that would more logically lead to denial of the application.

Despite the excruciating detail of DelDOT's reply, county council still faces several dilemmas:

Lacking reliable data on current traffic conditions, how can county council possibly make an informed, well-reasoned decision on an application that, by design, would draw significantly more traffic to the area?

Can county council, in good conscience, rely on statistical manipulations of 10-year-old data as a valid basis for approval? (A lesson learned from the recent presidential election is that statistical projections cannot be relied upon to demonstrate conditions on the ground.)

Does it make any sense to approve the application based on the promise that a traffic operational analysis will be done after the decision to rezone is made? (Deciding to attract more traffic to the site before determining current traffic conditions is to put the cart before the horse.)

Should county council feel obligated to approve the business zone because of road work already done in conjunction with the applicant's residential development? (The ethical answer is "no.")

Is the required road work at the intersections of Clay Road and Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road and Kings Highway really "sufficient," when bottlenecks will inevitably remain at SR1 and Dartmouth Drive on one end and at Kings Highway and Freeman Highway on the other end? (DelDOT admits that neither of these bottlenecks is likely to be remedied.)

Whereas the developer is only required "to take appropriate measures to maintain operations at the threshold level," will county council settle for a grade of D? (DelDOT defines "threshold level" as a Level of Service rating of D, on a scale from A-F.)

Bottom line, DelDOT does not provide any solid ground for approving the rezoning application, and county council still has no evidence that the roads in question - even with improvements - will ever be adequate to accommodate increased traffic generated by a business zone. Settling for a grade of D would be a discredit to our elected officials as well as to the people of Sussex County.

Affirming that county council's primary responsibility is to promote the safety and well-being of residents, denying the rezoning request is the right thing to do.

Jane Lord
Lewes