Milton council, state planners clear the air over future land-use map

Milton Town Council and state planning officials had an air-clearing session July 7, as the two sides have been in disagreement over the state’s request to remove three parcels from the town’s future land-use map.

Dorothy Morris, the Office of State Planning's Sussex County liaison, and Dave Edgell, state planning director, outlined details of the office’s role in future land-use planning and its reasons for wanting the town to remove the three parcels from the map.

The map serves as a guide for Milton and how the town could be expanded via annexation. It extends the potential future borders of Milton as far north as Reynolds Pond Road, as far south as Neptune Road and east up to Beaverdam Creek. The town is required, as part of its comprehensive development plan, which is reviewed and ratified by the state, to submit a future land-use or expansion map. 

Milton submitted its map as part of the 2023 update to its comp plan. However, state agencies voiced concerns about eight parcels officials wanted to see removed from the map. That number was later reduced to three after discussions with town officials. The three properties state planners want removed are: Four Winds Farm, a development under construction on Shingle Point Road; Triple C Farms off Harbeson Road; and the property next to Triple C Farms. Town Manager Kristy Roger said the owners of the properties have all asked to be included in the future land-use map. 

The objections mainly came from the Delaware Department of Transportation regarding the town’s transportation improvement district. Projects within a TID get priority for state funding, and DelDOT and Milton officials have worked on the TID for years. The argument from DelDOT is that if all the parcels are included on the future land-use map, it would mean the TID would have to be reconfigured to include all of them.

Morris went a bit further on the state’s objections, saying all three are rural farmland the state wants to protect. 

Still, town officials maintained that the town should be able to have these properties on its map.

Councilman Scotty Edler discussed developments around Milton – such as Milton Village on Route 16 and Route 30 that will have 677 units, and Cool Spring Crossing, which Edler described as a mini-city between Lewes and Milton. He said, “Why should we abdicate our right to annex these properties if it's in our best interest to protect the town overall?”

Discussing whether decisions on development around Milton should be within the purview of Milton council or Sussex County, Edler said, “I’m not saying these people don’t care about Milton, but they don’t live in Milton. If these were to be taken away and we just abdicate that to Sussex County, why would they be better at this than, say, [Mayor] John Collier or Scotty Edler or [Councilman] Tom Arkinson? We live here. When something goes wrong, the constituents come to us. At least we should have the authority to make the decision whether we should be able to annex them.”

Collier said to the state planning officials, “My philosophy on the whole thing is, when you can stop the county from approving development in strategy level 4, Milton will stop trying to include it in their growth area.” 

Collier said while the town isn’t looking to grow where the three parcels are at this time, part of the town’s attempt for including them in the future growth map is that even if they were to be developed under Sussex County, Milton would at least have a seat at the table because the properties would be included within the town’s comprehensive development plan. 

Still, both sides came away from the discussion at least happy they’ve heard each other out and can try to move forward.