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Sussex County planners have sent a strong message that the pace of growth is threatening the way of life in the Lewes area. Planning and Zoning Commission acted Thursday, March 27, on three L.T. Associates requests affecting more than 370 acres on Gills Neck Road and Kings Highway.
The commission recommended denying a request for rezoning of a 68-acre parcel from AR-1 to CR-1 to pave the way for a 521,000-square-foot shopping center, the Townsend Village Centre.
The commission recommended scaling down two other L.T. Associates requests for housing developments, clipping off 127 units and lots from the original proposals.
The commission recommended preliminary approval for the 119-acre Senators subdivision with 229 lots, which is 13 lots fewer than the 242 lots proposed. It also recommended approval for a conditional use of 186 acres for the Governors project, but with 258 units, which is 114 units fewer than the 472 proposed.
Lauded by opponents, the decisions could also have far-reaching effects on future Sussex projects. In the Governors project, commissioners recommended more than 50 acres of wetlands not be counted in density computation, in contrast to current county policy.
In addition, the commission found the project was not suited for the county’s bonus-density program even though the county was set to receive nearly $2 million from the developer for the purchase of open space. Commissioners found the density would have negatively affected the environmentally sensitive area.
And even though the county’s buffer ordinances are under review, the commission recommended 30-foot vegetated buffers around the Governors’ and Senators’ entire perimeters and 50-foot buffers around any wetlands.
County council will have final say in the fate of the two projects and the rezoning request. There is no time limit when the council must act on the requests.
The decisions created an optimistic stir among Lewes groups who oppose the rezoning for the Townsend Village Centre.
Mike Tyler, spokesman for the Citizens Coalition in Lewes, said the action has helped the county take steps toward smart growth.
“Planning and zoning has taken visionary steps to understand the impact a development of this magnitude would have on neighboring communities,” he said.
John Mateyko, spokesman for Citizens for a Livable Lewes, said his group was particularly pleased with the decision to not recommend rezoning to pave way for the commercial venture.
“With the unanimous decision it demonstrates there was no finding of fact to support the applicant,” Mateyko said. “It was rejected on numerous grounds, which were all raised by citizens as part of the public record.”
He feels people’s voices were heard. “This shows that coastal Sussex citizens are fed up with poor quality, environmentally irresponsible, unmanaged growth and have effectively organized to make their voices heard,” he said.
Dennis Schrader, attorney for L.T. Associates, said he and his clients had not met since the planning and zoning commission decisions. “We have no comment because we all scattered for the holiday,” he said.
He said a meeting was scheduled Tuesday, April 1, to evaluate the decisions.
The cumulative effect
Commissioner Michael Johnson, who represents the Lewes area, was the lone commissioner who spoke.
“I am quite concerned about the cumulative impact of these applications coupled with other projects previously approved by the county as well as other projects in close proximity being considered by the City of Lewes,” Johnson said.
Johnson noted that 829 units in five developments have already been approved along Gills Neck Road since 1998. Senators and Governors, as proposed, would add another 714 units for a total of 1,543 units on the 1.3-mile road. Johnson said that equates to 1 housing unit per 4.5 linear feet on Gills Neck Road.
That does not include the proposed 600 units from the Showfield development.
“The cumulative impact becomes obvious,” Johnson said.
In the recommendations, the commissioners scaled down the Governors townhouse project from the proposed 472 units to 258 units, by 114 lots or 25 percent, and scaled down the Senators housing development from the proposed 242 lots to 229 lots, by 13 fewer lots or 6 percent.
Johnson said the commission wanted each of the projects to reflect the county’s base zoning of two units per acre and did not feel the Governors project was suited to qualify for the county’s bonus-density ordinance.
The developers had proposed adding 99 units to the Governors project over and above allowed density, paying the county $20,000 per unit, or $1.98 million, to be used for the purchase of open space under the bonus-density program.
Johnson said not allowing the bonus density would provide more open space within the development for passive or active recreation. “While the bonus-density trade ordinance is a good program, this particular location is not suitable given the cumulative effect of the development occurring in the immediate vicinity,” he said.
In addition, Johnson said, wetlands on the parcel should not be used to calculate density for the project. He calculated about 129 acres of uplands and 57 acres of wetlands on the parcel. “A good portion of these wetlands have no development or recreational value to this project,” he said. “They can’t be built on, are barely contiguous to this project and are of no direct benefit to this project or its residents.”
Another condition placed on Governors was that no more than 60 building permits could be issued within a year.
In recommending denial of the rezoning request, Johnson pointed to several reasons. The project is not consistent with other commercial uses in the area; not consistent with what is permitted in a CR-1 district; need has not been established; a negative impact on traffic; and safety concerns with close proximity to Cape Henlopen High School.
“The proposed project does not meet the purpose of the zoning ordinance since it does not promote the orderly growth of the county,” Johnson said. “It would establish a large-scale regional, destination shopping center where no similar commercial uses of the same size and scale exist. It is not a logical transition from neighboring and adjacent uses, especially in this environmentally sensitive area which has severe limitations on safe pedestrian and vehicular travel.”
While the votes on Senators and the rezoning were unanimous, Commissioner Benjamin Gordy voted against the Governors’ motion.
Wording in code
Mateyko said the process points to a flaw in the county system – the way the county’s codes are written. “The code language is needlessly ambiguous with words like should and could instead of shall and shall not,” he said.
Because of that language, he said, the code is not clear. It has ended up costing the people of Lewes $37,000 in legal and consulting fees so far, Mateyko said, as well as thousands of hours of time.
“That’s a waste that should have gone to some worthwhile effort,” he said. “The code is not doing what it is supposed to do because it gives a fuzzy message. Government has the responsibility to make its code clear, fair, predictable and cost-effective. This experience shows the Sussex code, as it stands, gives the wrong signals to even the most egregiously inappropriate proposal.”
He said if the code, designed to protect an environmentally sensitive area, has holes in it that allows a regional shopping center to slip in then it’s not a code at all.
In the end, he said, sound-planning principles carried the day. “The message got through to them that this was an extremely serious threat to the survival of the community. But if it was so clear to everyone how was it that the code let it through?” he asked.
Mateyko said now is the time to correct the language in the code as the county updates its comprehensive plan.
The tipping point
Tyler said he hoped the rationale and facts behind the decision would “resonate throughout the county.”
“Councilman George Cole once asked when enough is enough. I think we have reached the tipping point. There is change on the horizon,” he said.
He hoped the decision would be an awakening for future land-use and zoning decisions. “We have cautious optimism that the county is moving in the direction that the Citizens Coalition has been promoting for 14 years,” he said.
Tyler said it would be difficult to reverse the recommendation of planning and zoning because it was based on facts and the county land-use plan.
Tyler credited the people of Lewes for standing up. “There was solidarity among people who spoke and a packed house always gets everyone’s attention,” he said. “The community rose up as they did 14 years ago when they stopped Tanger from building outlets at the gateway to Lewes.”
As many others argued, Tyler said, the environmentally sensitive developing district, where the three proposed projects are located, is unique. “Hopefully, this rings a bell for the district. Because we are really not doing anything different to protect the districts,” he said.
Mateyko urged people to continue to contact members of the county council. “This is not a race we have won – we are only at the midpoint,” he said. “County council has reversed the commission before and they could do it again.’
Contact Ron MacArthur at ronm@capegazette.com
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