Lately, the topic of developer clear-cutting has exasperated many of us. I have now learned that we all need to read between the lines when an approved development plan says that the developer needs to plant a forested buffer. As it turns out, the time frame is incredibly amorphous.
I live in Tidewater Landing on Robinsonville Road, which is adjacent to Chase Oaks, a development in progress.
On the Chase Oaks development plan, it clearly states: "The landscape and/or forest buffer shall be installed within 18 months from the date site work is authorized to commence as documented by a notice-to-proceed letter from the [Sussex planning & zoning] commission." The plan includes a detailed tree buffer adjacent to Tidewater Landing.
At Tidewater Landing, we have been anxiously counting the months until the 18-month mark, because in November 2021, the developer clear-cut the natural buffer of loblolly pines that was adjacent to Tidewater Landing and started doing site work. The roads and several ponds were dug adjacent to our community, yet no buffer has been replanted.
When I spoke to Sussex P&Z, I came to learn that Chase Oak's Phase 6 (which is technically adjacent to Tidewater Landing) has not yet been given the notice to proceed by P&Z. Phase 5 was given notice to proceed in December 2021, and Phase 5 is right next to Phase 6, but on the plan, the forested buffer would be part of Phase 6. So, even though a tremendous amount of site work adjacent to our community began to proceed November 2021, the clock has not yet started to tick on the phase that P&Z cares about.
This is incredibly unfair to the adjacent homeowners who have had to watch the mounds of dirt and site work for 18 months at this point, just to learn that this buffer replanting is not imminent or even part of a countdown. The approved condition of replanting is rendered meaningless. Who knows when Phase 6 will start? What if it never does?
For the past week, Councilman Mark Schaeffer has been trying to help me in this fight, but to no avail. P&Z needs to relook at the way the buffer replanting is being implemented. It is broken. It should not be by phase. It should be based on development start. Alternatively, there clearly needs to be a “no later than” clause added.
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