State and county have failed to plan for Sussex’s future
Having watched the area from Route 113 to the shoreline since 1972, I have witnessed growth that has continued to impact residents and businesses. I have watched DelDOT’s lack of foresight and the agency’s efforts to catch up with trends that were evident to those of us who wondered why the state wasn’t on top of Sussex County’s potential.
But it’s not only the state that has done poorly in forecasting how this county has been growing. County officials have been slow to make zoning regulations reflect a vision for planned growth. The result has been an explosion of housing construction that has been difficult to watch, knowing that developing the infrastructure required by the influx of new residents will be slow and expensive.
Make no mistake, I love my neighborhood, town and region within the county. So I understand well the magnetic pull this part of Delaware has for people. I do think, however, state and county governments need to be more proactive than reactive, which has been the norm.
Case in point is the proposed Atlantic Fields development on Route 24. Had the county government and DelDOT been on the ball, officials could have steered the developers to a different site. The developers have proposed a reasonable plan for their chosen shopping destination, though there may be other locations that could be as good or better from a planning perspective.
Within the past two decades, a similar shopping destination was proposed across from Cave Neck Road along the east side of Route 1. This proposal was voted down by the county after local residents complained. Now we have people supporting a move of the Atlantic Fields proposal to somewhere in the same vicinity. One might ask what has changed.
Sussex County is enduring the growth that county officials have allowed, perhaps even encouraged. DelDOT is trying to improve roads that haven’t been in the forefront of that agency’s planning. No doubt further changes at the county and state levels will be necessary because of how Sussex County is evolving.
I believe it would be foolish to deny the Atlantic Fields proposal. The sooner the county’s planners acknowledge the benefit of better shopping options that reflect the appetites of so many residents, the better. And DelDOT, if its leaders are wise, needs to be an active participant in the planning of transportation, both roads and public transit, for a beneficial result.
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