It’s time to ensure Sussex has adequate infrastructure.
Sussex County is a wonderful place to live and visit, but problems develop when the influx of permanent and temporary visitors exceeds the capacity to meet their needs. And that’s where Sussex has been for the past decade or more, dealing with infrastructure strains rooted in our success as a destination community.
We have learned the capacity to absorb more residents and visitors is limited. The evidence is found in many places. Doctor, dentist and veterinarian waiting rooms. School classrooms. Dispatchers’ calls for fire, ambulance and police services.
And then there are the roads. How many more minutes do you allow to get to any destination? It depends on the time of day and the month of the year. Suddenly, trips that should take five minutes take 25. Stress mounts. Frustration increases. Pleasure takes a back seat. Many year-round residents pass up trips to the beach because it involves too much hassle.
How do we align growth with the capacity to absorb that growth? County officials have resigned us to playing catch-up. They assume growth comes first and the rest will follow. As we’ve learned, closing those gaps does not come easily, can take considerable time and may never happen if the growth continues.
We need to consider a different approach. Imagine intentionally synchronizing growth with infrastructure. Require that growth be aligned with capacity before a development is approved, or at a minimum, growth in services occurs at the same time as population grows so services are not degraded.
Other places do this. New Castle County requires developers to pay impact fees and to demonstrate how new developments will not exceed capacity. Kent County adopted an adequate public facilities ordinance that applied to roads, schools and water before a coalition of builders and real estate interests elected new members to the Levy Court so the ordinance was reversed. Too many constraints, they argued, slowed county growth, which was, of course, the reason they were put in place.
It is time for Sussex to consider such an ordinance. In January 2025, the mere discussion of a moratorium on some development triggered an avalanche of objections from developers, bankers, builders and construction workers. Would they be more amenable to restraints that did not halt business but ensured that development be coordinated with adequate services? It’s time for Sussex residents to demand that development be coordinated with adequate services.
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