Residents of the Four Seasons at Belle Terre received notice of public hearings regarding applications for zoning change and conditional use of the property behind their homes and directly adjacent to Love Creek Elementary School. The subject property is the field just southwest of the school property and borders the main entrance road to the school.
The lovely 21-acre cornfield will be no more. A total of 84 multifamily units are proposed in an area where only single-family homes and a school border the parcel.
Of major concern is the increased traffic at the entrance. The entrance to the proposed development will share the existing entrance to Love Creek Elementary School. An additional 598 vehicles per day are estimated to enter or exit the development, according to the Preliminary Land Use Service application. In an already-congested area, this increased traffic may pose a threat to the safety of the schoolchildren.
According to the site plan, the backyards of 36 of the units will directly face the school property. Rainwater runoff from 14 units’ roofs will flow in the direction of the Belle Terre residents’ back yards. Four acres of woodlands will be destroyed. A total of 7.9 acres of impervious materials (roads, buildings, sidewalks, etc.) will replace the field. According to a report from DNREC, there are several rare, threatened or endangered species in the project area.
Another concern is that multifamily units tend to sell for a much lower price point than single-family units. This often leads to investors purchasing units for rental. And transient renters may not be the most desirable neighbors, especially to school-aged children only a few hundred feet away.
We have no objection to sensible development. On this parcel, currently zoned AR-1, single-family homes would be reasonable. But the requested change to a medium-density multifamily residential district and a request to build 84 multifamily units is out of character for both the neighborhood and the proximity to the school. It simply reflects the desire of the developer to squeeze more profit out of a relatively small parcel of land.
If you are concerned about the overdevelopment of Sussex County, or are the parent of a child enrolled at Love Creek Elementary School, take notice and voice your objection to the conditional use for multifamily zoning of this parcel at the P&Z meeting in Georgetown at 5 p.m., Thursday, June 23.
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