Mr. Conaway is quite right about the need for more housing, especially affordable housing. Given the rising real estate values in Sussex County, affordable housing east of Route 113 can’t happen without some type of public support. This fact has just been recognized in the county finance director’s recommendation to use $6.3 million in ARPA funds to support affordable housing development. This is a temporary fix. Once these funds are spent, who knows what the county will do in the future.
Unfortunately, Mr. Conaway seems to think that all the newcomers who bought houses in Sussex are the reason why private developers aren’t building affordable housing on their own. And, yes, the newcomers also are the reason our clogged roadways.
I call this the old-timers blame game, and it’s unbelievably dishonest. It conveniently skips over the fact that old-time landowners sold land to Sussex developers, who then cleared woodland and stripped top soil in order to build more expensive housing. These developers then marketed the Delaware Dream to out-of-state residents. All this development – with no plan for the public infrastructure needed to support it – has been allowed by both local and state governments.
I credit Mr. Conaway’s Economic Development Committee for supporting the recruitment of doctors, and for the development of better broadband coverage across Sussex County. However, if Sussex young people are leaving for other places, they may be searching for better job opportunities, not just housing.
So, Mr. Conaway, I hope you will tell us your committee’s vision for the county’s economic development. I fervently hope it involves education, because we need to attract the types of jobs that Wallops Island will be getting.
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