A public hearing will be held Wednesday, May 7, for a proposal to build 1,922 residences and nearly a half-million square feet of commercial space on Cool Spring Road off Route 9 west of Lewes.

The hearing will begin at 12 p.m. during a meeting of the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission, said Jamie Whitehouse, Sussex County Planning & Zoning director. There is no date yet for when county council will hold its own public hearings, but it should be later this year, Whitehouse noted. 

The Cool Spring Crossing developer was set to go before the commission about a year ago before asking to withdraw the application from consideration in February 2024. 

The project requires approval of a future land-use map amendment, a rezoning from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to MR-RPC, medium-density residential planned community, and conditional uses for multifamily housing and an assisted-living facility.

The Sussex Preservation Coalition is gearing up to fight the project, urging people at its April 8 meeting to attend the P&Z hearing to voice their concerns and to write letters of opposition to the commission. The group is particularly concerned about the size of the project and the effects it will have on the community, as well as its timing, since state plans to widen Route 9 are still years away.

The project would dwarf the 852-home Northstar project approved in October between Route 9 and Beaver Dam Road, farther east toward Lewes. 

“We nicknamed this ‘The Nightmare on 9,’ the fact that these two large developments were coming through the pipeline at the same time,” said Joe Pika, a Sussex Preservation Coalition board member, at the April 8 coalition meeting.

The Freeman Companies’ plan for the 637-acre Cool Spring Crossing development includes single-family houses, duplexes and townhouses. There would be 174 affordable apartments as part of the Sussex County Rental Program, which provides units below market rates based on income.

The latest plan splits the community into seven villages, comprising 534 single-family homes, 339 townhomes, 334 duplex units, 288 condos, 233 villas, 144 quadplex units and 50 patio homes. 

It would also have 450,975 square feet of commercial space, with options such as a grocery store, convenience store, retail shopping, bank, 100-room hotel, theater, YMCA, assisted living facility with medical offices, educational facility and restaurants.

The parcel borders Route 9, Cool Spring Road, Log Cabin Hill Road and Hudson Road. Nearly 300 acres of open space would be used for passive and active recreation areas, stormwater management, a wildlife habitat and a historical-archaeological protection area.

About half of the 208 acres of forest on the site would be cleared to make way for the project.