I would like to add my voice to those opposing a last-minute change by developers to their plan to build houses across the street from the high school on Kings Highway near Lewes. The amendment for the 150-unit Village Center Cottages submitted in August eliminates installing a gate designed so motorists can’t cut through the main entrance of Governors to get to Stockley Boulevard from Gills Neck Road or vice versa. If the shortcut is approved, traffic will most certainly increase when motorists realize they can bypass congestion by detouring into Governors. And this traffic will, in time, logically begin to overflow into adjacent streets within Governors and might even impact the Senators development next to Governors.
The gate as originally agreed to and approved allows Governors residents and first responders to open and close it via an access card. This compromise solution is a good one since it allows the current farmland to be developed while ensuring Governors does not become another series of public roadways.
In addition, the Governors clubhouse pool and tennis/pickleball courts are precisely along the route of the proposed shortcut road. Especially in summer, the area is a busy crossroads during the day and in the evenings that is used by parents with strollers, seniors, kids, joggers, walkers, dog walkers, bicyclists and more.
As a resident of Governors, I don’t pretend to be unbiased. However, even objectively I don’t think having the gate is too much to ask in the name of safety concerns and the likely changing of the tranquil nature of Governors.
We all know developers come and go. We willingly buy the houses and parcels they sell to enrich our lives, to retire, raise families, contribute to communities and establish new ones. From this perspective, my view is the benefits of making a change that developers suggest is unnecessary and does not justify the risks and the lives affected.
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