Plans introduced for new Harbeson post office

When the new Royal Farms was built in Harbeson, it replaced the former strip mall that included the Harbeson Deli and the local post office. But now, plans are afoot to bring the post office back in a new location.

David Hutt, attorney for landowner Harbeson Farm Revex LLC, has asked Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission for a rezoning of a parcel on Route 5 that would be used to build a complex where a new post office would go in. Located at 18865 Harbeson Road, the property is currently farmland about half a mile from Allen Harim’s poultry processing plant.

The commission deferred action on the proposal at an Oct. 1 public hearing in Georgetown.

Hutt is asking the commission to consider rezoning 35,000 square feet of land, a bit less than an acre, to be rezoned from AR-1, agricultural residential and MR, medium density residential, to B-2, business community zone. Hutt said Harbeson Farm Revex plans to build office and retail space on the parcel. Originally, Harbeson Farm Revex had applied for a rezoning to C-3, heavy commercial district, but Hutt said those plans were changed to a B-2 district, which is more fitting for the kind of rural, low-density development being proposed. The property fronts Route 5 and has on-site water and sewer, Hutt said. 

“This change of zone appears to be a perfect fit for the B-2 zoning classification and is intended to serve this semi-rural area,” he said. 

The commission did not have any questions for Hutt following his presentation, but still elected to defer the application to a later date. Karin Adkins, a Harbeson resident, was the only member of the public to speak during the hearing and she said she supported the rezoning.

“We miss our post office dearly,” she said. “I am fully in support of getting our post office back.”