State agencies told the developer of a 302-unit single-family home project west of Lewes that one of two planned access roads would not be allowed and asked it to avoid encroaching on 4 acres of wetlands.

Recommendations were made during a Preliminary Land Use Service meeting June 3, for the project called Traditions of America at Lewes, a planned age 55-plus community between Beaver Dam and Fisher roads. 

The proposal includes road accesses on the north and south ends of the site, but Stephen G. Bayer, a planning supervisor for the Delaware Department of Transportation, said his agency will not allow the one to the north.

Almost the entire 151-acre site straddling Hopkins Road is farmland. Of the 5.9 acres of forest, about 2 acres are set to be removed if the plan is approved. 

The project calls for 73 acres of open space in the form of active recreation, passive recreation and stormwater management.

The site is bordered by the Ridings at Rehoboth on the east, Heron Bay on the south and Miralon to the north. 

Dorothy Morris, a circuit planner covering Sussex County for the Office of State Planning Coordination, noted her agency opposes housing developments like this one in rural areas where there is not adequate infrastructure to support it.

About 4 acres of the site is nontidal wetlands, which Beth Krumrine, principal planner for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, encouraged the developer to avoid.

Traditions of America, a developer based in Berwyn, Pa., only builds 55-plus communities. It has three in Chester County, two in Pittsburgh, and one each in Lancaster County and the Lehigh Valley. The company also has another community in Richmond, Va.

Since its founding in 1997, the company has sold more than 6,000 homes and has twice won the National 55+ Builder of the Year Award from the National Association of Home Builders.