A large group of Lewes residents is organizing to oppose the Gills Neck Village Center development outside Lewes.

Dozens of people packed the parish hall of St. Peter's Church Nov. 14 to learn more about the Lewes Partnership for Managing Growth, concerned citizens who are urging the county to deny a rezoning request that would pave the way for the Village Center.

“This is a land-use issue only,” said attorney John Sergovic, who represents LPMG. “In the past, the county found that a large-scale regional shopping center was inappropriate for this location. Nothing has changed.”

Jack Lingo Asset Management representing J.G. Townsend Jr. and Co. is requesting a rezoning from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to CR-1, commercial-residential, for a 33-acre parcel along Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road to allow for a 215,000-square-foot shopping center that includes 32,000 square feet for six pad sites bordering Kings Highway.

The request will go before both Sussex County Council and the county's planning and zoning commission; each will hold a public hearing. Those have not yet been scheduled.

The goal of the group is to present a fact-based argument against rezoning the property. The group is focusing its argument on orderly growth, saying a shopping center of this magnitude would be inappropriate and only exacerbate existing problems, such as traffic congestion. LPMG member John Mateyko said in order to gain approval from the county, the developer will have to prove there is a public benefit for building the proposed shopping center. He doesn't see one.

“To get here, [shoppers] have to pass shopping centers that already exist [on] land already rezoned under the orderly growth provisions of the county plan,” he said. “We know why it is a private benefit, but where is the public benefit of doing this?”

Pointing to a recently released study by Environmental Resources Management, contracted by the city of Lewes, Mateyko said if Village Center were built, daily traffic would increase more than 16,000 trips per day in peak season. Based on proposed and approved development projects south and east of Savannah Road, about half the city of Lewes, the report estimates 36,000 new vehicle trips per day will be added by 2030.

Mateyko said that amount of traffic could have an adverse impact on public safety, delaying response times for fire, police and ambulances; creating conflicts with pedestrians and bicyclists; and putting at risk students of Cape Henlopen High School, located across the street.

Other concerns included attracting criminals to an area outside the Lewes Police Department's jurisdiction.

Mateyko said his group would support a sensible-smart growth alternative that meets local needs. He said the proposed square footage is much too large for businesses to survive only on local customers.

Based on the population of Gills Neck Road and the immediate area, he said, a proposal for a 30,000-square-foot shopping center would be more appropriate.

As proposed, he said, the shopping center would be comparable to the Pelican Square Shopping Center across Route 1 from Movies at Midway, which features Staples, Acme, Marshalls, Sleepy’s, Petco, other small storefronts and two pad sites.

A smaller-scale shopping site, Mateyko said, would bring less traffic. Again pointing to the ERM report, he said, the current proposal would congest existing roads and encourage drivers to use side streets as shortcuts. He said he fears if the proposed off ramp for Nassau is approved, motorists will exit Route 1 onto New Road and use Old Orchard and Clay roads to get to Village Center.

To achieve smart growth, Mateyko suggested the developer seek a conditional use under the exisiting AR-1 zoning. Then, he said, the parcel is not commercially zoned in perpetuity, and local residents will still have a say if a change of use is desired in the future.

“We've been here before … and we're back again,” said Nadine Wick, LPMG member. “We're back in a positive way to help do the best for our town and surrounding area, and that means having a dialogue with developers so we can put the best foot forward in what gets built in our area.”

One of LPMG's larger concerns is the proposed shopping center's impact on the city's water quality. With the Lewes Board of Public Works well field located across Kings Highway, many are concerned a shopping center with a large parking lot will contaminate the city's source water.

“We need to proceed with caution,” said Sumner Crosby, an Environmental Protection Agency employee working with LPMG. “We need to make sure we don't do something we can't undo later on.”

Indigenous rights activist Jules Jackson said the county should also consider the archaeological impact of the proposed project. She said she is confident the area should be protected under the Delaware unmarked human remains law, as the site is a known burial ground for Native Americans. She said the entire area in question is also home to many Native American artifacts, such as arrowheads and pottery.

Village Center has been a hot-button issue in the Lewes area for nearly a decade. Since first surfacing at the state's Preliminary Land Use Service in 2007, the developer has submitted several iterations of the shopping center to both county and state planners. The original application sought approval for a 521,000-square-foot shopping center on 68 acres. After withdrawing the application, the developer resubmitted a scaled-down 387,000-square-foot plan to PLUS. When seeking approval at the county level, the developer yet again scaled down the plan, this time to about 300,000 square feet.

When denied by county council in 2010, the developer filed a lawsuit against the county. In August 2014, the developer was granted a stay in federal court to resubmit an application with a new plan, which was submitted to PLUS in March of this year. The latest plan was officially submitted to the county in October.