No upzoning without impact fees
At a recent planning and zoning commission hearing on the Villas at Lewes Crossing, residents displayed mounting frustration over increasing traffic at a failing intersection.
An attorney presenting the plan, which seeks a rezoning that would double allowed density, agreed traffic in the area is, to quote one planning commissioner, “a mess.”
Even so, neither the commissioners nor the developer took any responsibility for the problems. “There is nothing the county or the developer can do to make the intersection better,” the attorney said.
Another commissioner said if citizens are frustrated, they should contact their state legislators. It would seem that county officials who sued the state – and won – to keep state officials out of land-use decisions at the same time want to blame state officials for the consequences of county decisions.
A little like wanting to have your cake and eat it, too. What is it that state legislators can do to remedy land-use decisions that clog our roads and pollute our Inland Bays? How can state legislators solve congestion and safety issues?
Fixing one intersection might temporarily make the roads safer, but if planning and zoning commissioners and council continue to approve requests for even more units per acre and more commercial development, state agencies will continue to lag behind. The disconnect will continue.
Why are developers flocking to our area? Because it’s much cheaper to develop land here than in Maryland, where developers pay impact fees, or anywhere else in Delaware.
It’s time for the planning and zoning commission and Sussex County Council to stop pointing fingers.
At two units per acre, Sussex County has the least restrictive zoning of any county on the Delmarva Peninsula and is the fastest-growing county in Delaware.
The message is clear: Two units per acre brings enough development without handing out higher densities.
It is not need but greed that drives many requests for zoning changes.
Council demanded and won control over land-use decisions. Council must now exercise that control and reject changes until it enacts impact fees that would offset the costs of road improvements and protect our waterways.
