Belle Mead public hearing delayed until September
A public hearing before Sussex County Council on the Belle Mead housing development proposal was delayed nearly two months after a sign advertising the meeting disappeared from the site.
Chip Guy, communications director for the county, said in a July 29 email that the state-mandated public notification process in advance of the hearing required several methods of informing the public, including a sign on the site.
“Specifically, the on-site notice advertising the hearing disappeared from the property; when staff became aware, out of an abundance of caution, the county opted to delay the hearing to repost the notice so as to ensure full public notification and meet state-required advertising rules,” Guy wrote.
The public hearing was originally scheduled for July 22. The new date is Tuesday, Sept. 16.
Belle Mead is a mixed-use apartment complex and retail center on a 30-acre parcel along Route 24 adjacent to Beacon Middle School near Lewes. The property is an equestrian facility known as Love Creek Farm.
Belmead Farm LLC is seeking to rezone the property from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to C-4 planned commercial district.
This is the first development requested under the C-4 district, which allows for large commercial projects mixed with no more than 40% housing based on acreage of the parcel. It also permits high-density housing.
The plan has three sections, including five commercial lots along Route 24, mixed commercial and residential units (similar to the Villages of Five Points), and seven garden-style apartment buildings for a total of 344 units.
Plans call for removing trees from five of the 10 acres of woods on the property.
The Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission heard several complaints at a March 19 public hearing. Cape Henlopen School District officials said large housing developments are overburdening schools. Others worried about the effects on roads and the fact that the state does not plan to widen the nearby Love Creek Bridge until at least 2030.
Becker Morgan engineer Mary Ryman said the project would have fewer school-aged children than if the site were developed for single-family houses.
After a developer-funded traffic study that included 16 intersections, Belmead Farm LLC will be required to pay $2.7 million into the Henlopen Transportation Improvement District for road improvements.
Opponents argued the traffic study did not include several key subdivisions and intersections.
Ryman said recent road improvements have widened Route 24, and included in the Belle Mead plan is a bus stop.
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
