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In more than 25 years of lobbying the Delaware General Assembly, Hal Godwin said this past session was one of his most productive.
Godwin, assistant to the administrator and county lobbyist for the past three years, almost batted 1.000 on key bills supported or introduced by the Sussex County Council.
The only major bill that didn’t see action was House Bill 311, which would have created special development tax districts to help pay for infrastructure.
Godwin said the bill passed unanimously in the House but disappeared in the Senate.
Aimed at new developments, the bill would have created special tax districts to fund roads, sewer and stormwater management to be paid for by developers and residents within that district. Several towns, including Bridgeville, already have special tax districts.
Godwin said there is more to the death of the bill than meets the eye. “The bill would have allowed the districts within Level 4 areas, which would have taken the state off the hook for any infrastructure costs,” he said.
Level 4 areas, as defined by the state, are the least desirable developing areas – not near town centers and usually in farming areas - where the state will not fund infrastructure.
The problem for Sussex County, Godwin said, is that about three-fourths of the county’s undeveloped land is in Level 4 areas.
“The lack of action on this bill looks like the state is not worried about the costs, but more about control,” he said.
“The Level 4 areas are by state analysis – not county analysis. We have a lot of people who object to having their property devalued through this zoning. It creates an economic hardship.”
Opposed by the county council, HB 453 passed, but Sussex County was taken out of the bill through an amendment. The new law exempts certain agritourism activities from local zoning regulations. Those include roadside markets, barn parties, fishing, camping, off-road bicycling, rodeos, hunting, fishing and paintball.
In return for the exclusion, the county must provide expedited reviews to farmers of any agritourism activity included in the bill. If a farmer with 10 acres or more in Sussex seeks to use farmland for such activities, he would have to apply for a conditional use or rezoning, but the review process would be expedited to 90 days, instead of the normal one-year time frame.
HB 42, which would have increased the size of the county council from five to seven members, did not pass, although the county council was in favor of it.
Land-use bills fail
A key bill, HB 111, which would have had drastic economic impacts on all three counties, did not pass. Aimed at discouraging development in Level 4 areas, the bill would have excluded the county from collecting real estate transfer tax within Level 4 areas.
Godwin said four other bills opposed by the council, which affected county land-use policies, failed.
HB 186 would have prohibited subdivisions in Level 4 areas; HB 233 would have established impact fees for schools; HB 239 would have established statewide adequate public facilities regulations; and HB 244 would have created a statewide transfer-of-development rights program.
HB 30, which was aimed at prohibiting spray irrigation on public lands, did not get out of the Senate.
HB 280, which remains in the House, requires the county to build all subdivision roads to state standards. The county is in the process of rewriting its subdivision standards to satisfy the requirements of the bill, Godwin said.
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, was either a sponsor or cosponsor of many of the bills opposed by the county.
He said the governor’s staff promoted most of the bills as legislation aimed at curtailing sprawl. He said if the county will not pass ordinances and zoning to direct development to growth zones, the state will have to step in.
Godwin said the state continues to promote legislation aimed at taking away the county’s power – especially on land-use issues.
He said county officials realize the importance of working with the state and that a strong relationship benefits both parties.
“We look at the relationship with the state as a brotherhood, but more and more the state looks at it as a parent-child relationship,” he said.
Rep. Joe Booth, R-Georgetown, said some of the bills may look good on paper, but when it comes to the inner-workings, it’s another story.
“The state gets into trouble when it tries to micromanage local government,” he said.
Schwartzkopf said the relationship should be a partnership, but it’s not. He said the state has little or no say in growth decisions made by the county council. “We have no say in development, but we are responsible for most of the infrastructure. That is not a partnership,” he said. “The county does not want the state in its business, and I can understand that to a point. But growth, especially in this area, is so rapid the state withholding dollars is the only thing the county understands.”
County bills pass
Godwin said two key bills supported by the county engineering staff passed. HB 312 allows for absentee ballots and scheduling of Saturday votes on county road and stormwater management project referendums.
HB 449 allows the county, as well as private wastewater providers, to build wastewater treatment facilities outside the boundaries of sewer districts. That helps to pave the way for a possible project to provide a plant for the towns of Greenwood and Ellendale.
The bill will provide county engineers with more flexibility in choosing land that is more suitable for such operations based on other factors including neighboring uses of the property, costs of the property, environmental concerns and soil conditions.
“The engineering department hit on two big scores,” Godwin said. “They can begin to offer central sewer in this area and offer better stormwater management almost immediately.”
To help solve issues in tax-ditch districts, HB 452 sets standards for easements along established tax ditches. “Some ditches have 200-foot setbacks, while others have 10-foot setbacks,” Godwin said.
The new law creates a standard of uniform setbacks – 10 feet for five-foot-wide ditches and 20 feet for 10-foot-wide ditches, for example.
Godwin said any buildings built in violation of setback easements prior to the passage of the law will be grandfathered in.
Godwin said it’s imperative the county has a spokesman working for it during the General Assembly session. “If not, we would lose the whole farm,” he said.
Schwartzkopf said if the shoe was on the other foot, the story would be a little different. For example, he said, if roads in Sussex fell under the jurisdiction of the county and not the state, some decisions might be different.
“There would be a different mindset to approving growth if the county was financially responsible for maintaining roads, building new roads and traffic,” he said. “But that is never going to happen.”
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