Village Centre opposition grows

A grassroots organization is strategizing ways it might influence Sussex County Council’s pending vote on a zoning-change request that would clear the way for the proposed Village Centre shopping center near Lewes.

About 40 people attended the Friday, Sept. 25 Managing Growth Around Lewes meeting at Lewes Public Library.

LT Associates is seeking a zoning change for a 320,000 square foot shopping center at Gills Neck Road and Kings Highway. County council is set to hear the request at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29, in council chambers in Georgetown. LT Associates is a partnership of Lingo and Townsend – two Sussex County-based, family-owned businesses with extensive land holdings and decades of real estate development experience.

The company’s proposal to build a 320,000-square-foot regional shopping center has raised ire among many Lewes-area residents who oppose the project. Residents say they have several concerns: The project’s large scale, which could pose a risk to groundwater in an environmentally sensitive area; insufficient roadway capacity that would make the area’s seasonally sufferable traffic congestion even worse; and the shopping center’s potential to economically kill small businesses in Lewes and the surrounding area.

“Lewes is already picture-postcard perfect – don’t change it. This is the birthplace of Sussex County and the birthplace of Delaware,” said John Mateyko, a Managing Growth Around Lewes (MGAL) organizer who has been point man in developing an opposition strategy to LT Associates’ proposal.

Mateyko asserts that a change of zone to allow the shopping center would be an illegal up-zoning of the parcel because the developer hasn’t shown a clear need for what’s proposed.

“If approved, they could legally build 30 things on the parcel – including a racetrack, an amusement park or with a conditional use, a casino and a regional shopping center,” Mateyko said.

Recent letters to the planning and zoning commission from Beebe Medical Center and to county council from the National Trust for Historic Preservation are bolstering MGAL’s opposition to the regional shopping center.

“The proposed commercial development at Freeman Highway and Gills Neck Road has the potential to substantially increase traffic in our area and therefore negatively impact one of the major access roads that emergency and other vehicles utilize to reach Beebe Medical Center,” wrote Janet McCarty, Beebe board of trustees chairwoman and Jeffrey Fried, hospital president and CEO.

“The proposed regional shopping center would have acatastrophic impact on the entire community, from devaluing the economic viability of downtown Lewes and its neighboring communities, to endangering the local supply of drinking water,” wrote Anita Franchetti, field representative, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Philadelphia Northeast Field Office.

A position paper written by William Moyer, an environmental consultant, details 14 flaws and inadequacies he says are in the county’s rezoning process, in the state’s land-use-review process and in LT Associates’ application.

Moyer writes that one flaw is the public’s exclusion from commenting on plan specifics.

Sussex County Councilwoman Joan Deaver spoke before the meeting, leaving before any discussion of tactics or strategy.

“I’m here to support you,” Deaver said.

“Any kind of change has to come from the grass roots. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Deaver said of MGAL’s efforts.

Deaver said the council’s hearing of the zone-change request prior to Sussex County Planning & Zoning’s hearing is a backward procedure that should be the opposite way around. She said the council wouldn’t vote Tuesday but would defer its decision until planning and zoning provides a full report.

“It’s crazy, and it needs to be changed,” she said.

Managing Growth Around Lewes is waging a David versus Goliath-like battle, aiming for a direct hit that would kill the giant’s giant project.

“There’s resounding clarity that people don’t want this,” Mateyko said of MGAL petitions bearing 2,500 signatures of those opposing the project.

Lewes has a history of grassroots organization victories over proposed large-scale commercial development.

In 1994, Lewes-based Citizens’ Coalition thwarted Tanger Outlet Centers’ plans to expand its shopping center presence with a development at Five Points. The council voted 4-1 against the project.

The coalition later also defeated WalMart’s plan to build a store just west of Five Points adjacent to Route 9.

“You’ve got to stay on topic,” advised Mike Tyler, a Citizens’ Coalition co-founder and one of those who led 1994’s blitz.

Mateyko told those planning to participate in the hearing to be prepared for a long evening.

He said Lingo-Townsend representatives would use about the first two and a half hours of the hearing to present what they’re proposing.

Mateyko said the next bloc of speakers would likely be City of Lewes officials – whose opposition to the proposal is on record – followed by MGAL’s attorney, John Sergovic Jr.

Then the public has its opportunity to speak, which Mateyko said could come as late as midnight.

“People do need to show up. It proves that you’re concerned,” he said.