Rehoboth officials have been working on the city’s state-mandated 2020 comprehensive development plan since late 2018. If everything goes as expected, city commissioners could soon pass the document along to the state for final approval. Commissioners have scheduled what is expected to be the final public hearing on the plan for 9 a.m., Tuesday, June 28, at city hall. 

The Rehoboth Beach Planning Commission forwarded the 300-plus-page plan to city commissioners for review in May. City commissioners have conducted half a dozen meetings since then.

Mayor Stan Mills said commissioners did not make a lot of changes to the version the planning commission recommended. The majority of changes involved wordsmithing, formatting and clarifications, he said.

In an email June 20, Mills said new content included such items as updates to park mapping, development of new neighborhood maps showing the boundaries of seven distinct neighborhoods, introduction of a new concept to develop a tourism management plan to target sustainable tourism, and a recommendation to develop a climate action plan specific to Rehoboth. He said new content also filled in missing information, such as descriptions of two proposed intracity transit programs presented to the commissioners in years past but rejected. 

Few deletions occurred, said Mills. One deletion involved wireless antennas because the city wants to avoid the possible inadvertent promotion of the proliferation of wireless antennas on the Boardwalk and elsewhere, he said.

Mills said the final draft of the CDP meets the minimum requirements established by the state.

“[The document] greatly exceeds the typical content of a CDP and will serve us well as a resource well into the future,” said Mills. 

Mills said he expects commissioners will be ready to vote to adopt the CDP at the conclusion of the public hearing. However, he said, a follow-up meeting is already scheduled for 9 a.m., Tuesday, July 5, which would allow commissioners to defer the vote a week if desired. The document is available for review on the city’s municipal website cityofrehoboth.civicweb.net.

Discussion on Sandcastle Motel reconstruction scheduled

Following the public hearing on the CDP, commissioners have also scheduled a discussion on the Sandcastle Motel. The meeting agenda was originally posted June 10, but then amended June 23 to include discussion on the motel and who authorized the permits for reconstruction of the motel. The developers of the motel were given special permission to demolish a large section of the motel during the city’s annual moratorium on demolitions. The demolition began June 20 and is scheduled to take place through Friday, July 8.