The 2024 election gave a mandate to three new council persons to fulfill their promises to curb Sussex County’s uncontrolled property development. But in the first major test of the new council’s commitment to that goal, it voted to approve the Belle Mead development, despite strong, well-reasoned and legally defensible reasons not to.
One justification given for approval was that the Belle Mead project is located in a place with schools and other services having adequate capacity to serve the new development. This despite the fact that DelDOT has not even started planning Route 24 road improvements from Love Creek Bridge southward, and that Cape Henlopen School District opposes Belle Mead because of safety issues and the fact that nearby schools are at or over capacity.
Another faulty justification was that Belle Mead will house only Sussex County workers, and not be a community where retirees will live. Where is the data to support that claim? Only 50 of the 334 Belle Mead housing units will be designated as affordable rental units, available to households earning at most 80% of Sussex area median income. The other 284 units will be priced at market rate. Can the Sussex County workforce – nurses, teachers, lab technicians – afford market rates in this resort area where home prices have nearly doubled in the last 10 years? What will keep retirees from moving to Belle Mead?
A third justification for mixed-use developments, including Belle Mead, is that they reduce traffic by offering the ability to shop and get services without leaving the property. But retirees, tourists and investment property owners and their tenants choose eastern Sussex over other destinations because it’s a coastal resort area. The claim that they won’t leave their development to enjoy the amenities they came here for doesn’t hold water.
Several council members’ districts do not lie in eastern Sussex County, where the majority of new developments are being built. But council members, no matter their district, must make decisions that are in the best interests of the entire county. Unchecked development affects us all, overwhelming our schools, healthcare system, sewer capacity, roads, tax revenues, and the natural environment so precious to Sussex County residents. We need council members who will make fact-based decisions that safeguard the interests of all Sussex County residents.
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