With less than three months to go before a state-mandated deadline, the Rehoboth Beach Planning Commission has forwarded the 2020 Comprehensive Development Plan to city commissioners for their review.

The nine-member planning commission unanimously approved handing off the 288-page document during a 20-minute review of the document’s sixth draft May 13. Planning Commissioner Jim Ellison “very happily” made a motion to move the document forward.

After the unanimous approval, Chair Michael Bryan congratulated the group. 

“We can close this book from our standpoint,” said Bryan, the fourth planning commission chair to oversee the document’s completion. “The members of this commission have done a fantastic job. Thank you very much.”

Planning Commissioner Steve Kauffman thanked city staff for their continued help. It’s been a long time and they’ve been great throughout, he said.

For various reasons – planning commission turnover; COVID; a number of high-profile, time-consuming project submissions; the last-minute exit of the city’s first consultant – city officials have asked for and received two year-long extensions from the state to complete the state-mandated document that will guide the city’s development for the next decade. Rehoboth has a hard deadline of July 2022 to complete the CDP. If it’s not completed in time, the state has the ability to withhold funding it provides the city for various projects.

In a prepared statement following the meeting, Mayor Stan Mills acknowledged city commissioners will have to work quickly, while still allowing for public participation.

“Though we’re on a tight time frame to get the CDP adopted, commissioners are committed to giving the plan the attention that it deserves and to ensuring that public input continues to be welcomed,” said Mills.

The timeline to complete the document by deadline will be tight.

Commissioners will begin discussion of the CDP in earnest with an all-day review of the document Tuesday, May 17. Commissioners are also expected to meet again Tuesday, May 24, and possibly Tuesday, May 31, before submitting the document back to the state for a second Preliminary Land Use Survey review.

There’s a PLUS meeting Wednesday, June 22. The city expects to receive comments back from the state the week of July 18. Commissioners are then expected to have meetings July 22, July 26 and July 29. All include possible afternoon sessions. To review the document in advance of the commissioner meeting, go to the comprehensive development plan folder under the document portal of the city’s government website,  cityofrehoboth.civicweb.net.