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Land-use reform proposals submitted to Sussex County Council

Oct. 14 workshop set to review suggestions, set development priorities
October 10, 2025

A report on a committee’s recommendations to refocus housing development was presented Oct. 7 to Sussex County Council, which will hold a workshop Tuesday, Oct. 14, to begin the process of adopting at least some of the ideas.

County Administrator Todd Lawson presented the 28-page document compiled by consultant McCormick Taylor. The Sussex County Land-Use Reform Working Group voted Sept. 11 to send 20 recommendations to council.

“The report was finalized as of Friday of this past week,” Lawson said. “We produced copies. You are the first to see the written copies of the report.”

The report is posted on the county website in a section concerning the working group that is part of the Planning & Zoning Office portion of the site. 

Council has a week to review the document and formulate questions and suggestions for a workshop at 9:30 a.m., Oct. 14, at the county Emergency Operations Center at 21911 Rudder Lane, Georgetown, Lawson said.

It will be a meeting of council, so there will be an opportunity for public comment, but the primary purpose is to allow discussion among council members, he said. The county planning & zoning commission may also be invited to attend.

County staff plan to review the report and the recommendations with council at that meeting. 

“You are going to see that some of the suggestions are fairly straightforward, [but] some are rather robust,” Lawson said. “We want to seek your preference on how to approach some of those differences, and the time and effort it will take for each of them to be considered.”

The consultants provided advice on how difficult it will be to implement the recommendations. Some proposals should be considered together, the working group suggested.

“This is not going to be a dog-and-pony show where we just talk to you about what the recommendations are,” Lawson said. “I know all five of you have been following this effort, so this is not new information. But this will allow us to get into some depth on each recommendation, the required work that’s going to go into implementing the recommendations.”

“Do we have a goal of coming out of that meeting with some priorities set and some direction, or not?” asked Councilwoman Jane Gruenebaum.

“It would be a goal of ours to at least have the feedback from you on where you think we should address our time,” Lawson said.

Some recommendations can be addressed quickly, he said.

“I believe there are some low-hanging-fruit recommendations that can be implemented in a very short period of time,” Lawson said. “We can get to work on that immediately. There are recommendations that are going to take months, if not years, to address when you couple together the comp plan work that’s going to have to take place with those recommendations.”

According to a chart at the end of the report, nine goals could take years to accomplish:

• Align future land-use map

• Establish growth and conservation areas

• Comprehensive rezoning

• Strategic density adjustments

• Collaboration with DelDOT

• Forest preservation

• Focus subdivision design in conservation areas around conservation priorities

• Explore a transfer of development rights program

• Prioritize hearing scheduling for projects that advance county land-use goals.

Others could take only weeks:

• Define missing middle housing types

• Permit missing middle housing in strategic areas

• Establish bulk and setback standards for missing middle housing and adjust height, building length and separation caps in growth areas

• Amend the Sussex County Rental Program

• Complete adoption of a master plan zoning ordinance for large-scale development

• Encourage naturalized landscaping in passive open space

• Support working farms through permitted agricultural support uses

• Improve clarity and consistency of the subdivision code. 

Another consideration in implementing recommendations is the state’s nearly complete 2025 Strategies for State Policies and Spending.

The report created every five years is usually completed in July. The deadline was pushed back six months in large part because the state wanted to get an indication of the direction of Sussex County, the fastest-growing county in the state, concerning housing development.

Housing development in recent years has burdened schools, roads, emergency services, healthcare providers and the environment.

Growing pressure from the public to limit growth resulted in election victories in the fall for three candidates calling for reform. They now represent a majority on the five-member county council. Creation of the working group was one of the new council’s first decisions early this year.

David Edgell, director of the Office of State Planning Coordination, which is drafting the state strategies plan, served on the 10-member county Land Use Reform Working Group.

Other members represented developers, environmentalists, agriculture, housing advocates and state agencies. 

 

Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.

His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.

Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper. 

Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.