Developer to seek county OK for Harbor Point

Jack Lingo Asset Management has withdrawn its application with Lewes for the proposed Harbor Point major subdivision and instead is expected to move ahead in Sussex County jurisdiction.

The company made a similar move with the 166-home Showfield project earlier this year, and it quickly won approval from the county. In both cases, the developer first sought to be annexed into Lewes.

Lewes Planning Commission Chairman Mike Mahaffie announced the developer's plans at the end of his group's Oct. 1 meeting about the comprehensive plan. Mayor Ted Becker said the city's lengthy approval process likely contributed to the developer's decision.

“I think it's a matter of they're anxious to get started with the project, and they feel as though our process is cumbersome,” Becker said.

Representatives from Jack Lingo Asset Management could not be reached for comment. However, in September Principal Nick Hammonds voiced his frustration with the slow-moving process after the annexation public hearing was postponed.

"That's just more uncertainty," he said. "More time and more dollars we have to spend prior to knowing even if we are going to be annexed into the town."

At the time, he said, no decisions were made, but his company was looking into its options.

The project had slowly cleared major hurdles over the last year, including winning preliminary consent from the city's planning commission in August and a favorable review from the annexation committee about a year ago.

Still, the project was several months away from full approval. In order to move forward with annexation, the city had to amend its comprehensive plan to allow for the project's higher density. The developer was seeking to build 69 single-family lots on a 108-acre parcel. However, much of the 108 acres is marshland and is not developable. The 2005 comp plan says that if that area – along the Great Marsh off Park Road – is developed, it should have 2- to 10-acre lots. The developer was seeking much higher density with 5,000-square-foot lots.

City Solicitor Glenn Mandalas submitted the comp plan amendment to the state, but some council members and residents were not satisfied with Mandalas' actions, as he submitted the request without the consent of city council. As a result, the comp plan amendment was withdrawn in September and public meetings with city council and the planning commission were scheduled this fall to discuss the proposed amendment. The delayed schedule may have been the tipping point for the developer, Becker said.

“We had to seek an amendment to our comp plan. That was going to take more time – another several months – which would've put the annexation vote off until some time this winter,” he said. “I think they wanted to go ahead and get started, and they think they will be able to get approval through the county at a more rapid pace.”

The parcel earmarked for Harbor Point is zoned AR-1 in the county with an environmentally sensitive developing district overlay. In AR-1, the developer would be allowed to build 20,000-square-foot lots; if a cluster development option is granted, 7,500-square-foot lots would be allowed.

Mahaffie said there is already an effort on the part of the city to share its concerns about the project with county staff.

Becker said he wished the developer had stayed with the city.

“I would have preferred they were a part of the city,” he said. “It's certainly going to look as though it is a part of the city.”

Earlier this summer, the long-talked-about and controversial Showfield development on Gills Neck Road outside Lewes gained quick approval by county officials.

Showfield was originally planned for a parcel that extended across Lewes and Sussex County land, with the entire project to be annexed into Lewes. When the housing market took a downturn in 2009, the developer shelved the development. Up to that point, the city's various commissions, committees and boards had held more than 50 public meetings about Showfield.

When the project resurfaced with the county earlier this summer, a scaled-down version of the project won approval only a few weeks after its first and only public hearing.

At its Monday, Oct. 6 meeting, Lewes Mayor and City Council will address the idea of completing annexation before accepting an application for a major subdivision, a step that may speed up the overall process. Along with that, Becker said, he expects the subdivision process to be reviewed and possibly altered as the city continues to work on its 2015 update to the comprehensive plan.