Developers are offering a new vision for Village Center in Lewes, stressing the proposed commercial center would be designed as a neighborhood shopping area. Developers presented a set of new plans for review by state agencies during the March 25 Preliminary Land Use Service meeting in Dover.

Jack Lingo Asset Management representing J.G. Townsend Jr. and Co. is requesting a rezoning from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to CR-1, commercial-residential, for a 33-acre parcel along Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road to allow for a 235,000-square foot shopping center that includes 32,000 square feet for six pad sites bordering Kings Highway.

“The center will be for daily necessities and services for the homes along Gills Neck Road so they don't have to get out on the Route 1 corridor,” said Doug Motley of Jack Lingo Asset Management.

This is the third time developers have sought rezoning for the parcel used as farmland. The proposed project has been pared down from the original 521,000-square-foot commercial/office complex on 68 acres first presented in 2007.

Developers withdrew the first rezoning application prior to a vote by county council. A second rezoning application was denied two years later by a 3-2 county council vote.

Motley said the proposed center is part of a Lingo-Townsend 30-year master plan along Gills Neck Road that started with the construction of the Wolfe Pointe and Wolfe Runne communities. That plan has proceeded along both sides of the road to include Breakwater, Hawkseye, Showfield, Senators and Governors.

The plan called for larger-lot communities to be built first with higher-density communities built closer to Kings Highway. At build out, more than 1,400 units/homes will be constructed.

J.G. Townsend Jr. and Co. has owned the land where the communities are located for more than 50 years.

Shown on the plans – but not part of the rezoning application filed with PLUS – is a 27-acre site set aside for a possible community center and YMCA. If the application is approved, the land would be donated to the community groups, said Nick Hammonds of Jack Lingo Asset Management.

It would then be up to the groups to proceed with the state review and county approval process, he said.

Public hearings on the rezoning request for Village Center could be scheduled this summer before the county's planning and zoning commission and county council.

Developers of large-scale residential and commercial projects are required to submit their plans for state agency review as part of the Office of State Planning Coordination's PLUS process. The final report – including agency and developer comments – is forwarded to county officials as part of the public record on applications.

Scope of road improvements

Because the application is pending, the total scope of road improvements the developers will be required to fund is not known, Hammonds said. “It's a difficult thing to predict other improvements because the scope of the project has changed so drastically,” Hammonds said.

He said the size of the proposed Village Center has been reduced, and the number of homes in Senators and Governors has also been reduced since a transportation plan agreement was signed in 2009 with state transportation officials.

What is known is that the developers would have to provide frontage improvements for access to the site and would be required to provide intersection improvements at Clay Road. Those proposed improvements include a new traffic signal and road realignment, all paid for by the developer.

Already scheduled as result of planning for Senators are a curve improvement project on Gills Neck Road, adjacent to Cadbury at Lewes, and upgrades to the Kings Highway-Gills Neck Road intersection.

Hammonds said the two-phase, two-year intersection project will include dedicated turn and through lanes at the busy intersection that also provides access to Cape Henlopen High School.

During the PLUS process, DelDOT's Bill Brockenbrough told the developers they will be required to comply with design standards outlined in a new corridor management plan and the Lewes historic byways plan.

Brockenbrough said a traffic impact study was conducted in 2006; a traffic operational analysis and a signal justification study will be required for the new proposed project. Brockenbrough said a new traffic impact study could be required if the YMCA project proceeds.

“The developer has already made a large investment in public infrastructure and the developer is prepared to invest more in public infrastructure, but it's DelDOT that has the final say. The developer will make the improvements that are right for the area,” Hammonds said.

Project needs commercial zoning

Questions surfaced in previous hearings about possible B-1 neighborhood zoning for the parcel. But under county code, the square footage of the proposed Village Center far exceeds the maximum square footage allowed under B-1 zoning. In that district, most of the same commercial/business uses in CR-1 and C-1 zoning districts are allowed, but the gross floor area of a building or group of buildings must be less than 75,000 square feet.

Since the proposed Village Center exceeds that maximum square footage by 160,000 square feet, it would not be permitted in a B-1 zone, said Shane Abbott, deputy director of county planning and zoning.

First plan rolled out in 2007

The Village Center plan was first heard by state agencies almost eight years ago to the day. In 2007, developers proposed 279,000 square feet of retail, 120,000 square feet of office space and 48 residential condominiums on 68 acres. That application was withdrawn before a county council vote.

A downsized plan was submitted to PLUS in April 2009 for a 387,000-square-foot center that was later pared down to 300,000 square feet on 46 acres. The commercial rezoning required for that project was rejected by county officials.

That action resulted in a federal lawsuit filed by the developer against the county. An agreement was reached between the two parties for a stay to allow the developer to submit a new rezoning application and new Village Center plan.