Sussex officials need to move expeditiously

The following was read into the record Jan. 2 at the Sussex County Council meeting. A copy was provided to the Cape Gazette for publication. 

After much and prolonged dissatisfaction by most residents of eastern Sussex County regarding out-of-control development, council last March acknowledged that land-use ordinances, which were incorporated in the current comprehensive plan five years ago, needed to be reviewed and rewritten to correct their deficiencies.

It then took six months to organize a workshop last September to begin addressing this matter.

During that workshop, some council members indicated it might take several years to review and revise these land-use ordinances. In the meantime, developments continue to be approved on the basis of these existing ordinances, despite council’s acknowledgement that they are deficient, resulting in the continuing elimination of our county’s natural assets, the deterioration in our quality of life, and the ever-increasing dissatisfaction by voters, who are your constituents. 

I will acknowledge that I, personally, am not too familiar with what constraints a county government may function under.

What I am familiar with, however, is that all other forms of human endeavor allow for mid-course corrections to ensure that a satisfactory goal can be reached despite changes in initial and underlying assumptions that may have served as the basis for initial plans. Individuals, families, small companies and even the largest multinationals (with which I personally am very familiar) make adjustments to longer-term plans when such unexpected changes point to a need for a course correction, despite how complicated that may be. In almost all such cases, these course corrections are considered and implemented expeditiously, and certainly not over the course of years!

What is it then that prevents our Sussex County government from doing likewise? How many more disasters such as Coral Lakes will be approved based upon these current and inadequate land-use ordinances while this effort drags on, as some of you expect?

As a concerned resident, who is your constituent, I would therefore urge you to do the following:

• Elevate this effort of rewriting land-use ordinances to a higher priority than currently appears to be the case
• Establish a publicly announced target date for completion of this effort
• Continue to seek input from residents and the various local organizations (e.g. Sussex Preservation Coalition) who are concerned with development and land use
• Seek advice and input from other jurisdictions who have been more successful in managing growth
• And finally, hold in abeyance any new applications for housing developments until such revised ordinances are enacted.

This is a matter of the greatest importance to your constituents, and we are counting on our county council to address it expeditiously.