A second community meeting to discuss plans prior to the Thursday, Sept. 10 planning and zoning public hearing took place Monday, Aug. 31, at the Lewes Library.
John Mateyko, spokesman for the groups, told those in attendance their voices are critical.

“Remember we won with a unanimous decision at planning and zoning last time,” Mateyko said. “The most important argument is you. You have to show up.”

In a later interview, Frank Kea, a planner and landscape architect for the project with Frank M. Kea Communities LLC, called many of the groups’ claims scare tactics. “The fact is this is being done in accordance with the county’s land-use map and in compliance with the county’s land-use plan,” he said. “It’s exactly where every plan says it should be.”

Hearing date nears

Distribution of yard signs, picketing, petitions, extensive local advertising, letters, emails and postcards to county officials and testimony at two upcoming public hearings are all part of the groups’ effort to prevent rezoning of the land. The groups also have a website: savelewes.org.

So far, 200 signs have been distributed to residents who shell out a $10 donation. Nadine Wick of Managing Growth Around Lewes said another 400 signs would be distributed this week. She said the groups sold 100 signs Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Historic Lewes Farmers Market in two hours.

L.T. Associates has been down this road before. The original rezoning request included a plan for a 521,000-square-foot shopping center on 68 acres. The request, which was recommended for denial by planning and zoning commissioners, was withdrawn Dec. 16, 2008, by the applicants, the day it was scheduled for county council vote. Three new council members were sworn in in January.

When council allowed L.T. Associates to withdraw the application, it also granted an expedited hearing for a resubmitted application; otherwise the plans would not have been heard for 18 to 20 months.

The groups plan to picket on The Circle in Georgetown the hour prior to the start of the 6 p.m. planning and zoning hearing.

Mateyko said to be prepared for a four- to six-hour hearing with many residents offering testimony on the application. The previous hearing was nearly five hours. The county council hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29. Council makes the final decision on rezoning applications.

Mateyko said the groups contend the debate is not about property rights. “This is an upzoning request by powerful developers and there is no need to upzone,” he said. “Our area already has too many shopping centers and congestion – with more coming.”

Kea said the groups in opposition want to establish a green zone around Lewes. “The fact that they want a greenbelt is irrelevant,” he said. “If they wanted control of the land use, they should have annexed the property, but they saw no marketable value to it. Now they want to do it on the landowners’ backs.”

Changes in application

Developers of the project say they have listened to the community and reduced the square footage of the proposed shopping center, as well as the acreage of the project, from 68 acres to 46 acres. Kea said 100 parking spaces have also been added to provide for a shuttle to Lewes to help alleviate downtown parking problems.

Traffic remains one of the major issues in contention.

Kea said Kings Highway is a major arterial road intended to carry heavy traffic, and is considered a bypass of Lewes.

According to a traffic impact study in the state’s review of the plan, traffic generated by the shopping center at build-out would be about 17,000 vehicles per day. That number was based on the original plan of a complex at 521,000 square feet, so the actual number could be less, based on the reduction in square footage of the revised plan.

Kea said a number of road improvements are planned for the area of Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road. Those improvements include a new signal at Clay Road, a signal or roundabout at the Dartmouth Drive intersection, improvements to the Gills Neck-Kings Highway intersection and various turn and pedestrian-bicycle lanes. He said the developers are prepared to dedicate rights of way for future road improvements.

“Traffic conditions will be better, not worse,” Kea said.

He said L.T. Associates is committed to $8.5 million in traffic improvements, including about $3.5 million for construction and $5 million for dedication of rights of way along Kings Highway and Clay Road.

Mateyko said Lewes streets and roads are well beyond their carrying capacity, and Kings Highway is also used by ferry and state park traffic. He said Kings Highway is a major route for emergency vehicles with 60 percent of all county ambulance runs going to Beebe Medical Center either via Kings Highway or Savannah Road.

Sussex County Councilwoman Joan Deaver, D-Rehoboth Beach, who attended the community meeting, told the crowd she was instructed to stay away from one-topic community meetings dealing with pending applications.

“I’m in touch, and that’s the way it’s going to be,” she said. “I’ll be at every meeting I can go to.”

Deaver left the meeting when the discussion turned specifically to the rezoning application.