Projects in pipeline would increase Sussex population 9.2%
Concern about overdevelopment in Sussex County continues to grow, as evidenced by the number of letters to the Cape Gazette. Last year’s election gave us three new council members, all of whom ran on a platform of keeping growth from exhausting natural resources and infrastructure. County council constituted its land-use reform working group soon after the new council members took office to develop recommendations for managing growth.
Many Sussex residents, including myself, are worried about the number of developments that will be built before county council can improve land-use codes. One concern is that a surge of development applications will be submitted in order to start them in the approval process before council can pass new ordinances to change the codes.
Even without a surge of new applications, there is already a pipeline full of new subdivision applications which, if approved, will further strain our already-overwhelmed natural and municipal resources.
Applications that are in the pipeline are those that are either waiting for state Preliminary Land Use Service review, waiting in the land-use docket to come before planning & zoning, or have been approved by P&Z and are waiting to come before county council.
Based on information from the PLUS website and the land-use docket, there are a total of 29 developments across Sussex County that are in that pipeline but not yet approved. There are at least four more that are approved but not yet built, including Northstar.
These 33 applications will bring a total of 7,013 single-family homes and 3,414 multi-family units, consuming a total land area of 4,256 acres. Using the U.S. Census per-household population multiplier for Sussex County of 2.38 persons per household, these developments would increase Sussex County’s population by 24,816 new residents. That’s a 9.2% increase over its 2024 population of 271,134.
The magnitude of this additional population growth that these developments would bring underscores the urgency of our current situation. A temporary pause in consideration of applications for large developments looks more and more necessary. I support Councilwoman Jane Gruenebaum’s request at the Sept. 16 council meeting to consider a targeted and time-limited pause in development.
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