On Oct. 22, approximately 50 residents from the Angola area of Sussex County marched in Georgetown in front of the County Administration building in protest of the proposed 7-Eleven on the corner of Angola Road and Route 24.
We are aligned in our fight against CU 2176, a conditional-use permit that would allow for this commercial gas station and convenience store to be built. The issues are well known at this point; we are primarily concerned about oil or gas spills that would compromise our drinking water and further pollute our Inland Bays. The proposed improvements to our corner were planned well before CU 2176 was filed.
Any additional improvements as a condition of this permit will not render this already unsafe corner any safer. There is only so much room to add traffic lanes and there are no plans to widen Route 24 past Love Creek Bridge or Angola Road. Again we find ourselves in a situation where development comes well before commensurate infrastructure improvements are even considered.
We as a group of residential communities, including Angola-by-the-Bay, Bay Ridge Woods, The Cove on Herring Creek, Chapel Green, Bay Pointe, Pinewater Farms, Stonewater Creek, and Angola Beach and Estates, have formed a coalition that will continue to grow, regardless of the Sussex County Council vote on CU 2176. We are not only residents, we are constituents and we vote.
Today was a day for us to voice our concerns to Sussex County Council, not by emails or letters, but by our presence. Many more would have attended, but work and other commitments precluded that. My thanks to Joe Caputo and Donna McCallum of Angola-by-the-Bay for organizing the march, and to Eul Lee and Jens Wegscheider of Bay Ridge Woods for working so tirelessly on these issues. Many others have given of their time and talents as well.
We are eager to respond to DelDOT and DNREC findings during a five-day window afforded to us. We are not going away. It’s very simple; we don’t want a heavy commercial business on our corner that threatens our safety.
Judy Kane
Lewes
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