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The Rehoboth Beach Planning Commission is endorsing a plan to rezone the Rehoboth Elementary School property but not without a few ideas of its own.
Rezoning the school property has been on the city’s list of things to do since the comprehensive development plan of 2003. The city has proposed rezoning the property as educational/residential to preserve the open space around the school.
The Cape Henlopen School District has offered a compromise plan should the school district decide to sell the property, in which 75 percent of the school property would go to the city to be used as open space, while the remaining 25 percent would be rezoned Residential-2, which the district says will provide more flexibility in what can be built on the property. Residential-2 would allow garden apartments, two-family dwellings and single family attached dwellings, among other uses.
The city wants the school’s 25 percent to be a contiguous lot, while the district does not want to predetermine the location.
Chairman Preston Littleton said the commission wanted to review the district’s compromise proposal because any future subdivision of the land will come under the jurisdiction of the planning commission.
The commission came up with several ideas they hoped to see incorporated into any compromise proposal. First, the commission wanted to see a significant buffer zone between the school property and Silver Lake. Littleton suggested the buffer should extend from the lake to the building line of the school.
Next, the commission wanted the city to have some sort of access path between the lake and the athletic fields.
Commissioner Dave Mellen said, “Not only is the buffer important but the access across the lake is very important. I think one would have to look at how that access is used by people going across and what they need when they get on the other side. In other words, you can’t just come across and have a two-foot wide pass-through to get to the fields.”
Littleton also suggested putting in a minimum width for a path between the lake and the athletic fields.
City Solicitor Glenn Mandalas said the district has agreed to two of the city’s recent proposals: a right-of-first refusal for purchasing the property and making the school’s 25 percent parcel one contiguous lot.
The commission will put its suggestions in writing before submitting them to the city commissioners. Once a compromise is reached between the school district and city, a public hearing will be scheduled where the commissioners will formally vote on the measure. A public hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Contact Ryan Mavity at ryanm@capegazette.com
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