The Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission granted approvals Jan. 21, allowing The Moorings at Lewes retirement community to add 56 residential units, and expand its community and healthcare buildings. 

The commission voted 4-0, with Commissioner John Passwaters absent, to change the conditions of approval for two adjacent parcels that comprise 38 acres.

The MR-RPC, medium-density residential planned community, zoning for the site was approved in 2004. It was expanded in 2014 by 5 acres and 32 units, bringing the total to 215 units.

The planned project will remove eight homes to make way for the construction of new homes.

Mackenzie Peet, a lawyer for the owner, said at a Dec. 10 public hearing before P&Z that construction of the new units will be planned to accommodate the relocations, wherever possible.  

The commission’s approval also covers two residences created over the years without permission from the county.

The development, formerly known as Cadbury at Lewes, is north and northwest of Gills Neck Road about two-tenths of a mile east of Kings Highway.

The application includes the addition of 21 single-family detached units and 46 multifamily apartment units. The plan would demolish four single-family cottages and two duplexes.

That would bring the total number of units in the community to 273.

Several residents complained about the operation of The Moorings at a Dec. 10 public hearing before P&Z. 

Vince Robertson, a county lawyer who assists the commission, noted at the Jan. 21 commission meeting that those concerns could not be considered by the commission in its vote.

“I don’t want anybody to think that we’re discounting those, what may be valid concerns, in what is solely a land-use decision,” Robertson said.

Residents had complained about inadequate communications by the owner. Peet said at the hearing that efforts to better inform residents have been initiated, including four meetings with residents and creation of an ad hoc expansion committee.

P&Z Commissioner G. Scott Collins listed a series of reasons for supporting the project and conditions that were placed on the project.

“This is a reasonable, limited expansion of the existing MR-RPC,” Collins said.

The project is consistent with neighboring developments, the site is in the Coastal Area designated for growth, and the state Department of Transportation predicted negligible impact on traffic, Collins said.

DelDOT will require construction of a left-turn lane at an existing entrance, and a shared-use path is planned, he said.

Another row of trees must be planted along two neighboring properties to screen the view of The Moorings development, Collins said.

The project includes the addition of two pickleball courts, a bocce ball court and a dog park.

Pickleball courts shown in the plans along Gills Neck Road on the east corner of the site adjacent to the Breakwater development must be moved to a more central location or be eliminated from the site plan, the commission decided.