The following letter was sent to the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission with a copy provided to the Cape Gazette for publication.
I respectfully ask that you keep the agricultural zoning for now on Atlantic Fields, Belle Mead, Cool Spring Crossing and similar huge developments.
Delaying these large projects for five or 10 years will give DelDOT a chance to catch up. You have heard at length about how deadly the traffic has become and how dire the situation is for EMTs and fire departments. P&Z choices have a massive impact on quality of life.
Yet, I get the impression P&Z feels traffic is up to DelDOT and any nature reserves are up to Sussex County Land Trust or any individuals with deep pockets to step up and buy the land.
Beyond traffic, we now have such bad runoff that any heavy rain means fecal bacterial beach closures.
Atlantic Fields thinks it can contain 73 acres’ worth of rain in four underground tanks? I've visited a parking lot that had similar issues, and the stench of black mold coming up from the grates and infecting the trees in the medians was awful. You have schools next door!
If commercial developments were required to have the 50-foot conservation easements required for residential areas and were allowed to consolidate this into a contiguous block, a patchwork of native species even in commercial areas will add to the Backyard National Park movement that is essential to preserve genetic diversity.
Of course, there will be future commercial development along routes 24 and 9, but there is no requirement to rush to do so in the next five years. Ten years from now, the redesigned Atlantic Fields will have the truck delivery in an alleyway down the center of the property and restaurants in the rear may overlook a lovely natural area with the pond, wetland, meadow, shrubs and trees that are all native and support the local wildlife.
Now is not the time to change the zoning. Humans have ample creativity and can come up with plans that preserve more of the natural environment. Developers love farmland and forests, as they save time and money over rehabilitating a brownfield, or demolishing or remodeling existing buildings.
Charge them more for this! Make a fee for every mature tree that is cut down. Add a hefty environmental fee to using farmland, and require that more of the parcel be left natural.
And insist on archeological surveys. Implying that any humans here more than 100 years ago are irrelevant is so disrespectful.
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