Time running out on Blue Point Villas II

The developer of a long-delayed housing project near Rehoboth Beach got little relief from Sussex County officials in a bid to get the project underway.

Developer Sunrise Ventures LLC is facing a Jan. 1, 2016 expiration of a conditional-use application for Blue Point Villas II, a 30-unit condominium development on Oyster House Road along the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal just outside Rehoboth Beach. No work has been started on the project, approved by county council in March 2006.

At its Oct. 20 meeting, county council voted to affirm a six-month deadline suspension as recommended by the county's planning and zoning commission, ignoring a request from the developer for a five-year time extension. The project must be substantially under construction by July 1, 2016.

Mark Dunkle, attorney for the developer, said delays caused by nearly five years of litigation and compliance with a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control mandated-cleanup of the site have prevented the developer from starting work. He asked county officials to extend the expiration to Jan. 1, 2021.

Cleanup of the site would have to be completed before construction could begin, said Lawrence Lank, the county's director of planning and zoning. Lank said the area along the canal had been used as a dump site.

The developer has entered into a state-approved voluntary cleanup program for the site. Dunkle said DNREC is expected to approve a remediation plan by the end of the year.

“We respectfully propose that granting this extraordinary special extension, due to the existing extraordinary environmental conditions, will benefit the public. Sunsetting of the currently approved residential development will only postpone if not eliminate the likelihood of a remediation of this site when other, unimpaired sites are readily available on the market,” Dunkle wrote.

Dunkle said the five-year time extension was justified because litigation and DNREC review of the application prohibited the developer from taking advantage of two previous blanket time extensions granted by county council in 2011 and 2013. He said the developer was requesting the equivalent time granted to other applications.

Council did not discuss the five-year request during its deliberation. However, Councilman Rob Arlett, R-Frankford, asked Lank why he was presenting the time-extension request. “Why are you here and not the applicant?” he asked.

County Administrator Todd Lawson said the expectation is that an applicant would be in attendance, but it's not a requirement. “That's how we see the process,” he said.

Arlett said he would like to see the applicant's presence as a condition for any future application time extension requests.