Sussex towns should form planning council

When it comes to transportation planning, the Wilmington area has a federally funded metropolitan planning organization known as Wilmington Area Planning Council or Wilmapco. It comprises state officials, such as secretaries of transportation and state planning, and it brings together representatives not only of Wilmington, but also of New Castle County and even Cecil County, Md.

It has a staff that includes a director and five planners. Wilmapco’s website says the organization’s effort is to “ensure that the transportation investments we are making will satisfy the needs of our residents and employers.”

The website also states, “Our role is to educate and involve the public in the transportation decision-making and funding process.

Because the transportation system is designed to serve you, we encourage you to get involved in the planning process.” The agency’s role, the website says, is to give the public “a real say in transportation planning issues of all sorts, such as buses, trains, sidewalks, bike and pedestrian paths, and greenways.”

Along with emergency access, are these not exactly the issues citizens demand answers about at every land use hearing before Sussex County Council? Citizens testify over and over again that existing infrastructure can’t support the traffic that’s already here.

Residents say clogged roads raise genuine safety concerns and diminish quality of life for everyone, and they question the accuracy of transportation studies paid for by developers.

The Cape Gazette has long urged Sussex County to hire a land-use planner, but that would require a decision by a long-reluctant council.

In the meantime, the towns of Sussex County should form an area planning council, one that can use federal and state dollars to hire transportation planners for southern Delaware and then invite Sussex County and nearby Maryland counties to join.

The time for regional planning is now, before a patchwork of land-use decisions makes real planning decisions impossible. It’s a window of opportunity that is already closing. Lewes has already taken the lead in transportation planning. But Lewes and other Cape Region towns would have a far stronger voice by forming a council and demanding a seat at the table.