Upzonings with no road improvements make no sense
Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission recently voted 3-2 to recommend approval for an upzoning at the Reserves of Nassau. If Sussex County Council follows suit with approval, traffic from another 147 homes will be uploaded on a questionable Route 1 intersection for which no improvements are planned.
That project’s additional traffic will also only aggravate problems at the dangerous and confusing intersection less than a quarter mile west of its Tulip Drive access, where Route 1 and Nassau Road cross. There are no plans in place to improve the intersection at the eastern foot of the Nassau overpass either, a place where crashes are a regular occurrence.
As we stated with upzoning proposals for the Old Landing Golf Course project and the Villas project on Beaver Dam Road west of Five Points, it makes no sense to approve upzoning requests when Delaware doesn’t have the money or the plans necessary to improve our increasingly clogged roads, designed for far less traffic, or intersections that were already failing five years ago.
Upzonings may improve the quality of life for people moving here from the more congested and higher-tax urban areas around us, but what benefit do they serve for those of us who already call this area home?
The people who come out to the public hearings on these proposals live with these traffic conditions every day. They know what they’re talking about. Their concerns are real and should not be ignored. Such input should be pivotal in rezoning discussions.
The Reserves property in question is already zoned to allow about 75 homes. There should be no objection to conditional-use approval allowing these homes to be clustered to make the best and most efficient use of a challenging former dump with wetlands features. The current zoning, however, allows enough units.
Until our state or county and developers show the political will to address the increasing congestion and safety issues arriving with more and more development and pay for serious improvements to highway infrastructure, Sussex Council should put up a red light to all upzonings in our rapidly developing coastal region.
