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The ongoing controversy over plans for Townsend Village Centre boiled over during last week’s school board meeting. But, after listening to safety and traffic concerns, the board took no position on the proposed 520,000-square-foot center on Gills Neck Road.
The Townsend Village Centre would be the size of all the Tanger Outlets combined and is planned right across from the front entrance to Cape Henlopen High School. While safety is a concern for some board members, others say it is not the place of the school board to weigh in on development issues.
Safety at that intersection is a red flag, said Terry Bartley, father of two high school students. Traffic impact studies gave the intersection a failing grade, Bartley said. With increased traffic generated by large-scale commercial development, the high school driveway connecting Kings Highway and Savannah Road would be used even more as a shortcut, said Bartley, meaning more cars around students.
Lewes City Councilwoman Barbara Vaughan echoed Bartley’s concerns, saying the huge retail center will have a significant impact on traffic on Kings Highway and Savannah Road. Richard A. Shields Elementary School and the Ninth Grade Campus are both on Savannah Road.
Crossing guards are posted at both of those schools, including at the intersection of DeVries Circle and Savannah Road – which board member Gary Wray called “coffin corner.”
“Safety is of prime interest to the city and to you. We would appreciate your input on opposing this matter,” Vaughan said.
Board member Noble Prettyman, who is opposed to the project and who wants the board to take a position on it, asked, “How many fender benders are we going to have before we have a fatal in front of the school?”
The school board is well within its authority and responsibility to stake a stand against the project, said Bartley. “If the district is participating in the rezoning of the Rehoboth Elementary, logic says the district should participate in the Townsend Village Center rezoning for the safety of students,” Bartley said.
Board member Spencer Brittingham drew a different line between the proposed Rehoboth rezoning and the Townsend Village Center rezoning. “We’re going to Rehoboth next month to ask them to not tell us what to do with our property, but we’re on the verge of trying to tell somebody else what to do with theirs,” Brittingham said.
School board member Gary Wray agreed with Brittingham, “The school district is not into telling folks what they can or cannot do with their land, and we don’t really like folks, like Rehoboth, telling us what we can do, or can’t do with our land,” said Wray.
The school board is asking Rehoboth Beach to not rezone property on which the Rehoboth Elementary School sits to educational/residential. The school district believes it will lose the value of its land in the down zoning move the city says will preserve open space. In order to build the Townsend Village Center, Lingo-Townsend Associates LLC is requesting a zoning change from agricultural/residential 1 to commercial.
Councilwoman Vaughan said she understood the board might feel reluctant to take a stand on the development, but that other local bodies, specifically the Lewes City Council, have opposed it. The council passed a unanimous resolution opposing the retail space because of its size, Vaughan said.
Prettyman said there is nothing wrong with the board expressing its views and that some position should be taken. The Milton community came out strongly against the proposed Isaacs Glen development and the developer withdrew his plans, said Prettyman.
Wray said board members may have their own personal views but as a group the best position to take is no position. “The decision on rezoning is in the hands of the Georgetown politicians where it belongs, in my view,” he said.
Board President Esthelda Parker Selby told members, “We need to do whatever we’re going to do by the next meeting.”
The next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 24.
Contact Leah Hoenen at leah@capegazette.com
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