Smart Growth News

Delaware

Panelists: Sussex County Must Move Faster on Smart Growth

The League of Women Voters of Sussex County (LWVSC) has held seven forums since September to inform the public about land use issues and gather input on ways to accelerate the Sussex planning pace.

At the final forum, entitled Quality of Life and Smart Growth, three guest panelists, all certified planners – Office of State Planning Coordination Director (OSPC) Constance Holland, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Planning Chief Lee Ann Walling and Kent County Planning and Zoning Director Sarah Keifer – focused on land use differences between Sussex County and neighboring Kent County. Lacking a certified planner on its Planning and Zoning staff, Sussex County had no representative on the panel. According to Cape Gazette writer Ron MacArthur, the panelists told the audience that Kent County, the state's fastest growing since 2000, updated its comprehensive plan in late 2008, following with new ordinances that helped locate nearly 90 percent of recent development in a designated growth zone along routes 13 and 113 and near Milford, Harrington, Dover and Smyrna.

To promote development in the growth zone and restrict it elsewhere, the county is neither extending its sewer lines nor allowing local wastewater treatment facilities outside the zone. Additional incentives in the zone include development density bonuses and transfer of development rights, while outside projects must obey sliding density norms – the more lots, the lower the density – with the largest projects limited to one unit per 4 acres. ''Smart growth creates a sense of community,'' noted Director Kiefer. ''Development is where the infrastructure is – near municipalities.''

To reach that stage, said the panelists, Sussex County needs more political will and public involvement. For now, the county's updated comprehensive plan recommends transfer of development rights, but there is no ordinance. County sewers expand in districts by annexation or community request, with the county allowing construction of local facilities though only to its specifications and subject to county and state review. The county's zoning map includes protected areas, environmentally sensitive overlay zones, and prospective development centers and districts in or near towns, but no specific growth zone has yet been established, with basic zoning set at two units per acre.

DNREC Planning Chief Walling acknowledged some high-density smart-growth examples in the coastal Cape Henlopen State Park area, including Villages of Five Points in Lewes, nearby Paynter's Mill, and Cannery Village in Milton, but she also voiced concern over some extremely self-centered property-rights notions in the county. ''It's that I can do anything I want on my property,'' she observed. ''That needs to be counteracted with a different message of community fairness.''

OSPC Director Holland stressed that Sussex County land-use decision-making should reflect ''the will of the people.'' The problem, the writer notes, is that most development affects the eastern half of the county, represented by only two council members, with the other three representing the predominantly rural western half. The forum moderator, LWVSC Program Chair Sandy Spence, pointed out that some officials are trying to make changes, but ''the power is in the west and they want different things in the west.''   5/1/2010

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/ ; www.sussexlwv.org/ ;

Voters Turn Out for Delaware Smart Growth Candidate

In an upset for Governor Ruth Ann Minner and other state Democratic leaders, state treasurer and ''party maverick'' Jack Markell won the party's record-turnout primary by just 2.4 percent over her two-term Lieutenant Governor John C. Carney Jr., reports Wilmington News Journal writer Beth Miller, with the winner's policy platform reading like a compendium of smart growth and observers saying if he beats his Republican rival, former Superior Court Judge Bill Lee, in the November election, Delaware could jump to the national smart-growth forefront.

''A win is a win, and going against the party establishment, a 2-percent win is a huge accomplishment,'' pointed out Young Democrats Movement leader Tom McBride, instrumental in the treasurer's electoral campaign.

While Governor Minner said the treasurer ''was taking credit for things we have done,'' expecting him to do ''some fence-mending'' before he faces the Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor Carney offered his congratulations and full support.

''I'm asking everyone in this room to support him 100 percent as well,'' he told his faithful. ''We have to bring this party back together.''

At his victory party, Jack Markell said he looks forward to reaching out to John Carney within his own administration, and now is focusing on a debate over the next several weeks about the direction the state should take.

His course is clearly set out in ''A Plan for Enhancing Our Quality of Life in Delaware,'' based on research and guidelines by the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the Urban Land Institute and key New Urbanism and mass transit champions, and posted on his campaign web site.

The state has recent laws to spur comprehensive planning, fund open space and farmland preservation, improve cooperation with developers, and increase grants for brownfields assessment and cleanup, he writes in the plan, but it ''still can do more to encourage smarter growth and better land use,'' while investing in transportation solutions to gridlock.

Noting the high financial, social and environmental costs of sprawl, he points out that ''(s)mart growth decisions -- like mixed land use, clustered development, and multiple transportation choices -- help minimize all of these costs'' and that ''(s)mart growth also builds healthier and safer communities.''

To realize that potential to its full, he would make growth planning ''a responsibility throughout state government'' and help communities ''with smart growth planning,'' which would include creating ''rational, reasonable and predictable zoning regulations, offering localities assistance on ''statewide environmental issues,'' and devising ''a model statewide approach to developing new schools.''

To encourage redevelopment of brownfields and grayfields -- the latter meaning land not contaminated but taken by often blighted or obsolete buildings and warranting reuse before construction in greenfields -- he would direct the state to prepare ''a brownfield redevelopment inventory,'' provide One-Stop-Shopping for governments and agencies seeking to ''revitalize older contaminated properties,'' offer neighborhood groups funding to cover legal expenses in brownfield acquisition, streamline permitting, focus brownfield tax incentives on redevelopment, buy down environmental insurance premiums to limit or cap developer liability and cleanup cost, and set incentives and policies to facilitate rehabilitation and redevelopment of grayfields.

Simultaneously, he would link smart growth criteria to state funding, since the ''state's 'power of the purse' can be used to reward desired kinds of smart growth.''

The criteria could include brownfield redevelopment, transit access, presence of water and sewer lines, environmentally sustainable building design, compliance with local comprehensive smart growth plans, and bike route and walking paths.

Leading by example, the state would locate its offices in downtown areas and step up its successful Agricultural Lands Preservation Program, which has saved more than 80,000 acres so far.

Therefore, it would enhance owners' land preservation options, especially in designated rural areas, promote Transfer of Development Rights, and help farmers in transition from less-profitable to high-demand products.

And to improve mobility, the government should make ''congestion reduction the primary goal of state investment in our infrastructure,'' invest in integrated transportation management systems, improve bus routes, explore rail improvements, encourage infrastructure development for walking and biking, and demonstrate leadership by using alternative fuel state vehicles.

See the plan at www.markell.org/pdf/Markell_quality_of_life.pdf. -- News Journal   9/10/2008

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/

Potential Closure of Delaware Chrysler Plant Could Create Smart Growth Opportunity for Newark

Though Chrysler's first hybrid vehicle will soon come from its Newark plant in New Castle County, the world's eighth largest auto company intends to sell the 244-acre property after 2009, with interim City Manager Roy H. Lopata saying if no other car manufacturer moves in, the city will have the opportunity ''to do something really exciting through smart growth and smart development.''

A member of the city's ''Chrysler Redevelopment Liaison Team,'' together with Mayor Vance A. Funk III and Councilman Paul Pomeroy, reports Newark Post writer Scott Goss, Manager Lopata and other officials promised the site, next to the University of Delaware campus, will be a sustainable economic engine and a high-quality development showcase.

Councilman Pomeroy expects that to include a company or companies focused on cutting edge technologies.

''The future of that property could have a profound effect on the economy of the city, the county and the state for decades to come,'' he observed. ''This opportunity rests on us recognizing emerging 21st century trends and then capitalizing on them to steer the best possible product to this location.''

And if the property is used for anything else than manufacturing or warehousing, the writer adds, the City Council will decide what it may be through a project review process, including related zoning changes. -- Newark Post   6/20/2008

Resource(s): www.newarkpostonline.com/

Delaware Gubernatorial Candidates Offer Views on State Transportation Needs

Asked by the Wilmington News Journal to outline briefly their thoughts on the state's transportation needs and solutions, Democratic gubernatorial candidates John Carney Jr. and Jack Markell included efforts to restore federal funds for transportation infrastructure among their top priorities, with the former cautioning against the likelihood of more sprawl ''if state and county governments don't work together to coordinate land use and transportation policies that promote 'smart growth','' while Republican candidate Mike Protack promised to ''aggressively support public/private partnerships for leasing and building of new and existing roads and other projects,'' but all three expressed similar commitment to better and expanded transit.

Democrat Carney stressed: ''People who argue that you can build your way out of congestion are misguided. Building transportation capacity often leads to more development. This can be a good thing, but it often leads to more congestion. I support better coordination between the state and counties to make transportation investments where we need to fix bottlenecks and where we want to encourage new development, as well as efforts to create more livable communities that create alternatives to jumping in the car all the time. Better bus service, including Sundays, and expanding commuter rail are also smart investments.''

Democrat Markell explained: ''The choices we make in the next decade will determine what Delaware looks like in the next century. Delaware's growing senior-citizen population is increasing our mass-transit needs. We must ensure that DARC [Delaware Authority for Regional Transit] bus service meets riders' needs, including on weekends. Additionally, rails is one of the best ways to get Delawareans moving. Delaware should explore options such as speeding the connection of the SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) and MARC (Maryland Rail Commuter Service) systems to allow more people to travel by rail and bring workers and businesses into Delaware.''

Republican Protack said: ''As governor, I realize the purpose of a transit system is to maximize mobility. To do so, we must invite private enterprise from the light-rail industry to offer solutions for well-traveled corridors in and out of Wilmington and the beach area. My goal is to have a light-rail system in the next 10 years. We will pursue 'Delaware only' transit solutions and also within the regional context to support opportunities like the anticipated Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) job growth in Aberdeen, Maryland.'' -- News Journal   4/13/2008

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Zoning Commissioners Vote to Scale Back Size of Lewes Development

Alarmed by the impact of rapid development on the quality of life in the coastal Cape Henlopen State Park area, the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission voted to reject a proposed 521,000-square-foot shopping center and to reduce the residential Senators and Governors projects from 242 to 229 and from 472 to 258 units, respectively, all three planned by L.T. Associates on a total of 370 acres just south of Lewes.

In addition, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Ron MacArthur, the commission recommended 30-foot green buffers around both housing projects and 50-foot inside buffers around their wetlands, while advising the County Council against inclusion of 57 acres of Governors' wetlands in the project's density computation and finding it ineligible for benefits from the county's density-bonus ordinance.

The developers, the writer notes, wanted a density bonus of 99 units for the Governors project, offering the county $20,000 per unit -- or $1.98 million -- for acquisition of open space.

Speaking for the commission, Commissioner Michael Johnson of Lewes pointed out that without the extra density, future Governors residents will have more space left for recreation.

''While the bonus-density trade ordinance is a good program, this particular location is not suitable given the cumulative effect of the development occurring in the immediate vicinity.''

As to the recommendation against rezoning for the shopping center, named by the developers Townsend Village Centre, Commissioner Johnson called it inconsistent with the area's other commercial uses and district regulations, unneeded, and too perilous for local traffic and for the safety of students at nearby Cape Henlopen High School.

''The proposed project does not meet the purpose of the zoning ordinance since it does not promote the orderly growth of the county,'' he explained. ''It is not a logical transition from neighboring and adjacent uses, especially in this environmentally sensitive area which has severe limitations on safe pedestrian and vehicular travel.''

Smart growth advocates welcomed the recommendations.

''Planning and zoning has taken visionary steps to understand the impact a development of this magnitude would have on neighboring communities,'' commented Lewes' Citizens Coalition spokesman Mike Tyler, crediting local residents for their involvement at the commission hearings. ''There was solidarity among people who spoke and a packed house always gets everyone's attention.''

Citizens for a Livable Lewes spokesman John Mateyko was especially pleased by the vote against rezoning for the shopping center.

''It was rejected on numerous grounds, which were all raised by citizens as part of the public record,'' he said, taking the opportunity to address the county's code flaws.

''The code is needlessly ambiguous with words like 'should' and 'could' instead of 'shall' and 'shall not','' he observed, saying this lack of clarity has cost his group $37,000 in legal and consulting fees and thousands of hours of time. ''Government has the responsibility to make its code clear, fair, predictable and cost-effective.''

Presently, the code ''gives the wrong signals to even the most egregiously inappropriate proposal,'' he stressed, hoping for its overhaul during the ongoing comprehensive plan update process and for continued public involvement in the development and land zoning issues, because the county council ''reversed the commission before and they could do it again.'' -- Cape Gazette   4/1/2008

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/index.html

Lewes Officials Seek Controls to Slow Down Development

Under Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner's 2001 Livable Delaware agenda, the state wants counties to push growth toward towns, and the updated Sussex County comprehensive plan follows that directive, but many town officials are resentful, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Ron MacArthur, with Lewes Councilwoman Stephanie Tsantes telling County Assistant Administrator Hal Godwin and others at a recent four-town public feedback meeting, ''We need to protect our quality of life. You are destroying the small-town way of life if development is directed to towns.''

Councilman Victor Letonoff and Mayor James Ford voiced similar concerns.

''We are not asking to stop development, but some controls are needed to slow it down,'' said the councilman, while the mayor added, ''Livable Delaware was created to stop sprawl. But we can't handle any more development. We are swamped with too much, too fast. We need a time out.''

Noting that some municipalities also fear development near their boundaries, Delaware Office of State Planning and Coordination official Connie Holland thought comprehensive town plans could designate those adjacent tracts as areas of ''concern'' instead of growth, which would let officials restrict development on specific parcels if projects might overburden local infrastructure and services.

Calling the updated county plan a mission statement, she stressed that its implementation depends on ordinances, and County Assistant Administrator Godwin and Councilman Lynn Rogers promised such regulatory follow-up.

''We will develop ordinances -- that's where the rubber meets the road,'' said the administrator, committed to strengthening county-municipal land use coordination, with the councilman admitting that the previous plan lacked well-written ordinances.

''This time around we bid out the consultant to write the plan; we like what we've got. And now we also have a professional to write the ordinances,'' he pointed out. ''The ordinances make the plan live or die and the ordinances must have teeth in them.''

At the same time, planner Bobbie Geyer, who worked on the Delaware Department of Transportation's addition to the county plan, responded to Commissioner Letonoff's concerns about Cape Region traffic problems, saying state officials realize ''you can't build your way out of congestion,'' but they ''can make it easier to get around without getting in your car.''

A week later, reports Cape Gazette writer Henry J. Evans Jr., those subjects were also addressed at a two-day ''Managing Growth Around Lewes'' conference, featuring presentations by University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Associate Professor Reid Ewing and national planner-designer Randall Arendt. -- Cape Gazette   11/5/2007

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/index.html

''Green Streets'' Would Help Minimize Stormwater Impact in Delaware

To minimize the environmental impact of rapid Sussex County development, especially in coastal areas, county officials should take advantage of ''green streets'' stormwater management technology as they implement their new comprehensive plan, said University of Delaware Sea Grant Marine Advisory Director Jim Falk, the leader of an interdisciplinary team brought by the U.S. EPA Smart Growth staff to a three-day water quality workshop at the university's College of Marine and Earth Studies in Lewes.

The state, which is now updating its stormwater regulations, could also benefit from green street solutions, Director Falk observed, hoping to coordinate a demonstration project to help the public realize their efficiency.

One of the pioneers in the field, Nevue Ngan Associates landscape architect Kevin Perry, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Ron McArthur, said the goal is to let water filter into the ground by limiting hard surfaces, introducing pervious paving, expanding landscaped and grassy areas, and adding parking lot swales, absorbent medians between curbs and sidewalks, rain gardens and planters to collect runoff.

All this doesn't increase costs of new projects, while retrofits cost about $25 per square foot, but with less runoff flowing to wastewater treatment plants, municipalities save on that service.

Presenting his point, the writer notes, the architect redrew local La Rosa Negra Restaurant's parking lot as ''a green street parking lot,'' putting stormwater management components into new landscaping without any parking space loss.

''There is even room for a small patio,'' he pointed out. ''Not only does this help the environment, but it helps the restaurant.'' -- Cape Gazette   8/13/2007

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/index.html

Sussex County May Expand Developer Fee for Open Space Fund to Multi-Family Housing

Agreeing with Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips that residential growth should be offset by open space preservation, the county's Planning and Zoning Commission, which previously endorsed his idea of making developers pay at least $15,000 for each single-family home over those permitted under current AR-1 (agricultural-residential) in its designated growth areas, has now unanimously recommended County Council approval for expanding such fees to construction of more than two apartments or condos per acre, both measures expected to raise millions of dollars for land conservation.

A comprehensive system of such fees, pointed out Councilman Phillips, would help pay for ''preserving the best of Sussex County for future generations.''

Councilman George Cole, reports Salisbury (Maryland) Daily Times writer Bruce Pringle, called a fee of only $15,000 or $20,000 per additional home a gift for developers and ''a joke,'' while Commission Chairman Bob Wheatley was receptive.

''It may not be as good as we would like it,'' he said of the new proposal, ''but it's better than what we have.''

Under the proposal, the writer notes, at least 40 percent of a site would have to be set aside for community benefits, though a county code would have to specify exactly how such land could be used, and the maximum number of housing units would be limited to four per acre.

In contrast, developers could now build up to 12 units per acre, with no contribution to land preservation programs.

Some critics of Councilman Phillips' proposal argue that allowing more than two dwellings per acre, regardless of housing type, isn't appropriate in much of rural Sussex, while others fear a multi-family housing surge in AR-1 zones, where detached homes are far more common.

On the other hand, the Sussex County Community Land Trust and land-use experts back the proposal as good for saving rural land and curbing sprawl. -- Daily Times   7/19/2007

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Workshops Set to Help Coastal Delaware Reign in Sprawl

Once the nation launched its gigantic interstate highway construction program in 1956, it forgot to develop smartly, the urban outflow to ever farther suburbs intensified, and now suburbanites ''don't live in the countryside'' but ''in their cars,'' said ''Save Our Land, Save Our Cities'' author Thomas Hylton, founder of a nonprofit of the same name, at the University of Delaware's first Coastal Community Enhancement Initiative workshop in Sussex County, advising area officials and residents to cut sprawl costs and environmental deterioration through smart growth.

''We've squandered farmland as recklessly as we did fish or buffalo a hundred years ago,'' and becoming car-dependent ''we've turned Delaware landscapes into Delaware junkscapes,'' he observed, showing the audience photos of bumper-to-bumper traffic and of a car-packed shopping center parking lot. ''Zoning in this county does the wrong thing by separating uses. The last place where you want to build anything is on virgin land.''

Designed to help the county improve land use and growth management as its population swells in the next decades, reports Salisbury (MD) News Journal writer Molly Murray, the university's Coastal Community Enhancement Initiative involves the College of Marine and Earth Studies and its Sea Grant Program, the College of Agricultural Resources and its Cooperative Extension Service, and the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy and its Institute for Public Administration.

Some projects are already under way, with Center for Historic Architecture and Design Director David Ames working to create a heritage atlas and promote area historic and cultural assets as tourist attraction, and Department of Food and Resource Economics Associate Professor Joshua Duke exploring farmland preservation issues, including public attitudes and valuation.

His polls, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Henry J. Evans Jr., found significant support for farming and land conservation, which may be difficult due to a wide difference in prices, ranging from $4,700 to $43,000 per acre for a 10-acre poultry farm, depending on location and development prospects.

Taxpayers are willing to fund farmland protection, especially to make it publicly accessible, but the price difference must be dealt with, the professor pointed out, adding, ''We think there's a problem with the incentives and that there's a market failure. We need to intervene in this market through public policy.'' -- News Journal; Cape Gazette   6/29/2007

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/ ; www.capegazette.com/

Kent County Reaches ''Crisis Stage'' in Development Applications, Says Moratorium Needed to Get Adequate Growth Plan in Place

A fight over Kent County's steps to make residential projects pay a share of their public costs and to ensure smart growth is heating up, with Chancery Court Vice Chancellor John W. Noble denying the county's request to stay his June 20 invalidation of its January nine-month subdivision moratorium, the seven-member Kent County Levy Court -- five Democrats and two Republicans -- unanimously deciding to appeal the decision in the state Supreme Court and enacting an ''emergency' moratorium until August 22, and developer Rodney Mitchell's attorney John W. Paradee challenging the enactment as violating state laws and county procedures.

''They didn't get what they wanted from the judge,'' he said of county leaders, ''so they just approved a stay by legislative fiat.''

But the judge has frustrated him too, reports Wilmington News Journal writer James Merriweather, by declining to issue a temporary restraining order against the emergency moratorium and requiring his brief on July 2, with County Attorney William W. Pepper due to respond by July 6, and oral arguments scheduled for July 11.

The emergency moratorium, the writer notes, is to keep subdivision applications at bay until after the county's August 21 vote on a longer moratorium, which would last till next April 22, giving officials time to complete a comprehensive plan and hold public input rounds.

''All of what county government has been attempting to do with regards to providing sensible growth is in public interest,'' said County Administrator Michael J. Petit de Mange, commenting on the moratoria and the recently passed adequate public facilities ordinances, also challenged by the developer in court as invalid for his projects that were in the pipeline prior to passage of the law.

''With the exponential number of development applications we've received in recent years, we have reached a crisis stage,'' the administrator stressed. ''We have reached a point in time where we must get tools in place to make sure that as growth proceeds, it proceeds in a controlled way.''

As to the emergency moratorium, observes Dover Delaware State News writer Misty Autumn Seemans, county officials point out that it stems from ''the public emergency affecting the life, health, property and the public peace.''

Specifically, it reads: ''The Kent County Levy Court finds that such a public emergency exists based on the announced intentions of developers to file numerous applications for subdivision approval and/or planned unit developments that will add an estimated 2,000 additional building lots.'' -- News Journal, Delaware State News   6/28/2007

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/

Developer Offers Milton 20 Acres for Wastewater Plant, Seeks Annexation and Rezoning for High-Density Development

Reflecting the shift of many builders toward higher densities, Key Ventures has asked Milton, some five miles from the Delaware Bay, to annex an 86-acre rural tract now zoned R-1 for about 217 single-family homes and rezone 66 acres of it to an R-3 ''large parcel development'' (LPD) with at least 390 units, including an apartment complex, offering the town the other 20 acres for its ''badly needed'' new wastewater treatment plant.

Without such rezoning, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Kevin Spence, the developer would build what's currently allowed on the whole tract, and the town would have to find land for the treatment plant elsewhere.

Mayor Don Post said at a special council meeting the rezoning request isn't unusual, an approval would have precedent, and higher density would bring the town more money.

The majority of rezoning applications since the 2001 annexation of Cannery Village and the eventual zoning changes, he pointed out, ''came in and requested a higher density.''

Although Councilwoman Mary Hudson and Councilman Noble Prettyman shared several residents' concerns over insufficient public input during the Key Ventures application process, they accepted the mayor's assurance that the public will have ample opportunity to get involved when the developer submits site plans and they joined their five colleagues in unanimous approval of the annexation agreement.

Under the agreement, the writer notes, the council has two months to consider rezoning of the tract, and should it decide against higher density, the developer would withdraw the offer of 20 acres for the wastewater treatment plant.

Councilwoman Hudson isn't intimidated. ''We need to follow smart growth and consider Key Ventures on its own merits,'' she stressed, ''where it's located and what the zoning for Key Ventures would do for this town.'' -- Cape Gazette   5/23/2007

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/

Coastal Zone Protection Ordinance Invalidated by Delaware Judge

Passed 5-2 by the Kent County Levy Court in February 2006, the farsighted Coastal Zone Protection Overlay Ordinance was to ease development pressures on prime eastside farmland between Route 1 and Delaware Bay with zoning of one home per five acres near its northern stretch and per 10 acres elsewhere, but area farmers complained about potential land value losses, and Chancery Judge William B. Chandler III invalidated the ordinance as violating a state law that requires the same treatment of land zoned for the same use.

Accepting plaintiffs' claim that all county land zoned for agriculture constitutes ''a single, non-contiguous district,'' reports Wilmington News Journal writer James Merriweather, the judge wrote that under the law ''all such regulations shall be uniform for each class or kind of building throughout any district'' though they may be different in other such districts.

Plaintiffs' attorney Richard A. Forsten said of the coastal zone protection overlay, ''This was a down-zoning and a taking of value away from some people for the benefit of everybody in the county.''

His partner William E. Manning added, ''Our point is, if you feel compelled to do things that drastically reduce the value of property owned by farming families, then you better be prepared to pay for it.''

Former Kent County Levy Court Republican President David R. Burris, like his party colleague and primary ordinance sponsor Ronald D. Smith, also no longer in office, expressed disappointment.

''I thought it would be good to try to preserve that portion of Kent County,'' said the former. ''But I do understand the reasoning that it doesn't apply evenly.''

The ruling ''is really going to tie planners' hands, noted the latter. ''It's another tool taken from the toolbox, and it throws the whole overlay approach into question.''

Although the judge wrote that his ruling doesn't apply to overlay zones set up for other purposes and shielded by a state law that leaves only 60 days for challenges to new land use rules, County Administrator Michael J. Petit de Mange also saw a threat to this key land-management practice.

Pointing out that the state's Land Protection Act requires the use of overlay zoning ordinances to protect the ''unique ecological functions'' in resource areas,'' he observed, ''If, in fact, state law in Delaware says there will be no overlay districts, then we need to look at state law and get it changed because what's at stake is too important.''

New Levy Court Democratic President Brooks Banta made it clear the ruling will not change the county's land protection course.

''Naturally, there's always the possibility to appeal to a higher court,'' he said. ''Or we may rezone everything in the county to five acres per unit. It takes four votes to do anything and, as long as it's fair and equitable, we're going to do it.'' -- News Journal   5/3/2007

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

New Castle County's Next Comprehensive Plan Expected to Include Higher Densities, Focus on Quality of Life for Existing Communities

Its population of some 550,000 likely to reach about 650,000 by 2030, New Castle County expects to avert gridlock and secure local community identities under its next comprehensive plan, designed to rein in sprawl, save farmland, and ensure mixed uses, higher density, walkability and more housing options.

''This is not just about new development,'' said county Land Use Department General Manager Charles Baker. ''This is also about quality of life for existing communities.''

He and County Executive Chris Coons, reports Wilmington News Journal writer Angie Basiouny, have led work on the plan update since September 2005, with four thematic subcommittees involving more than 200 officials, activists, developers, attorneys and other participants.

Posted on the county Web site for public comments, the plan must be adopted in its final version next March, after which the county council will craft related legislation.

It ''could range from creating new zoning districts and rulers allowing greater density to providing more incentives for building on brownfields,'' the writer thinks, noting that density would increase from an average of 3.3 to 6 dwellings per acre in the north, while in the south it would rise from 1.1 to 4 units per acre in its roughly 25-square-mile growth core -- just south of Chesapeake (Bay)-Delaware (River) Canal -- but decline to a maximum of 1 unit per acre in surrounding open areas.

Growth is coming and the county either can manage it or not, said Councilman Robert Weiner, known nationwide for his lectures on infill and mixed uses.

''Our current method,'' he stressed, ''is basically to disperse it in a sprawl pattern, which requires an investment by state and county government in infrastructure we can no longer afford.''

The executive director of the nonprofit Committee of 100 business group, Beverley Baxter, and an attorney for major developers, land-use lawyer Lisa Goodman, both like the planned higher densities.

They will let the county expand affordable housing, including apartments, town houses, and single-family homes under $250,000, said the former, adding, ''Right now, we're pricing so many people out of the market.''

The plan, agreed the latter, addresses ''the concerns about sprawl in a way that is really productive and beneficial to both the citizens and our economic interests.''

Still, county land use manager Baker predicts some resistance.

''With this idea of greater density and mixed-use development in appropriate locations,'' he observes, ''there are going to be people who live next door to that who are going to have a negative reaction.''

Indeed, the writer already quotes a longtime land protection advocate, Southern New Castle County Alliance and plan subcommittee member David Carter. Fearing increased densities won't be balanced by mandatory land conservation, he said, ''if we are going to use 'smart growth,' use all aspects of it'' and not ''just the development-friendly parts.'' -- News Journal   12/2/2006

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/

Sussex County Accepts Three Applications for Moderately Priced Housing Unit Program

Despite prevalent skepticism about developer willingness to participate in Sussex County's three-tier Moderately Priced Housing Unit (MPHU) Program -- launched in January to help workers making from 80 to 125 percent of the area's median income, or between $30,850 and $74,375 -- the County Council received and accepted three first-round program applications, under which developers would build a total of 546 affordable units in exchange for density bonuses in their projects should they successfully complete the entire approval process.

With his four colleagues voting for the developer MPHU applications, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Rachel Swick, Councilman George Cole voted ''no,'' saying the council ''should require developers to put these units in and not give them the (density) bonus, which creates added stress on our resources.''

Council President Lynn Rogers responded, ''We are only voting to allow the moderately priced housing units to go to the next step.''

The applicants knew it, too, but hoped for the best. ''We're a smart-growth company, and we like to do projects that are leading edge,'' said Lewes Investment Company principal Rick Stout on behalf of the Stout and Teague partners, whose 108-acre Five Points project, including 105 moderately-priced units, received early endorsement from the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance (DVSGA). ''It provides a great mix of uses in an excellent location,'' commented DVSGA spokeswoman Susan Blake on its plans, ''a genuine effort to mix income levels, increase densities, meet environmental concerns, and provide community recreation.''

The other two applications admitted into the MPHU program came from developer Darin Lockwood, whose mixed-use North Milton Development with 4,000 housing units would offer 400 units below market rates, and from Seaford-based Seacost Investment LLC, which would include 41 MPHU units among the 163 proposed for the dilapidated site of a former racetrack. -- Cape Gazette   4/28/2006

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/

Dagsboro Council Acts to Guide Growth While Preserving Small-Town Charm

As the Sussex County Council gave the green light for rapid development, Dagsboro, just ten miles from popular southern Delaware beaches, saw the need to preserve its small town charm and put three smart-growth proponents on its council last November, says a Bethany Beach Delaware Wave editorial, praising the council for a permit moratorium and infrastructure impact fees, but telling it to tread '' a fine line'' for the sake of future revenue.

Projects in the pipeline can move forward, ''but there is rumbling that the building impact fees may price developers right out of town,'' the editorial cautions, suggesting creation of a ''commercial district,'' perhaps along route 26 east of the city, to reap the benefits of growth.

''The downtown area can retain its appeal and the people of Dagsboro would be happy with containing the possible sprawl that could come under the county's watch,'' the editorial observes, hopeful the council will look at growth ''with an open mind.'' -- Delaware Wave   4/19/2006

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/index.html

Sprawl Prevention Act Would Restrict Growth on 450,000 Rural Delaware Acres

Among the first state executives to support smart growth, Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner pledged to rein in sprawl, ease congestion, strengthen urban areas and ''protect our huge investment in roads, schools and other infrastructure'' under her 2001 Livable Delaware initiative, but local and development industry opposition held much of the program back, leading Southern New Castle County Alliance leader Leann Ferguson to describe the results as ''Miserable Delaware,'' and the administration had to alter tactics -- it is now pressing for the fast passage of its Sprawl Prevention Act (HB 280), which would restrict growth on some 450,000 rural acres, or three-quarters of the state's buildable land.

The act would set a four-acre rural lot minimum and ban community sewage systems in those restriction areas, writes Wilmington senior reporter Cris Barrish, noting that builders planned 70,000 homes in the past two years, but 49 percent of their land was located outside designated growth areas. At the same time, he notes, the state abandoned a proposal to require impact fees of up to $10,000.

Gubernatorial land-use adviser Lee Ann Walling, who pointed out that despite setbacks the administration has done more to manage growth than previous ones -- by securing $19 million annually for farmland preservation, facilitating brownfield reuse, and requiring five-year county and municipal comprehensive plans and preliminary developer land-use service consultations -- thought attitudes were recently getting better.

As an example, she mentioned the Kent County Levy Court's decision in February to restrict growth on 110,000 rural acres, or nearly 30 percent of the county's area, to five-acre and 10-acre lots. Also, some developers said they wouldn't protest fair impact fees. New projects should pay their way with impact fees or special development-district taxes, agreed developer Josh Freeman, explaining, ''Lets's say there's 10,000 dwelling units and I'm (building) 1,000 of those. I should pay 10 percent of what road studies say is going to be impacted.''

Nevertheless, legislative leaders and state officials expect a tough battle for the anti-sprawl act. Senate Agriculture Committee Democratic Chairman George Bunting said he has never seen ''a farm community so incensed about a piece of legislation.'' Top state environmental official John A. Hughes has been urging communities to support the act for months, telling Sussex residents last fall, ''You can regulate and formulate rules forever, but if you don't win the battle of land use, you don't have any environment for your regulations to act upon.'' -- News Journal   4/6/2006

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/

Urban Land Institute Speaker Advises Milton Leaders to ''Save the Heart and Soul'' of Downtown

Milton, just six miles from the Delaware Bay, has changed little in the last 100 years, but now builders want it to annex large rural and wooded tracts, its wastewater treatment plant needs repair, and officials seek advice on their best course under the gubernatorial Livable Delaware smart-growth guidelines, with Senior Resident Fellow for Sustainable Development at the Urban Land Institute Ed McMahon telling an open joint Town Council, Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustment session, ''Inspect your downtown first. Save the heart and soul of Milton.''

Planned by council member Gene Dvornick for almost two years to fit the expert's busy schedule, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Rosanne Pack, his presentation reassured the audience that development neither should nor has to degrade a community.

''There is a special and unique character in small towns,'' McMahon observed. ''There is a sense of place that makes the surroundings worth caring for.''

Frequently applauded by listeners, the author of the 2004 book, ''Better Models for Development in Delaware,'' noted that once communities show determination to protect local character, national food chains adjust, forego their ubiquitous golden arches or red roofs and build as befits the neighborhoods.

Having cited Milton's new Cannery Village in his book as a good example of ''infill,'' or a smart alternative to leapfrog development, the speaker encouraged the town to review its zoning and design code, and consider narrow streets, small lots and cluster housing for the tracts it may annex, which would leave more green space for public enjoyment.

He also pointed out that less affluent communities like Milton should pursue research and planning grants, create partnerships and find sustainable development incentives; that developers should make sure they know details of local regulations and tweak their plans accordingly to eliminate potential problems; and that lifelong residents and newcomers should overcome differences and work for common good.

Sharing his views, local resident and Sussex County Councilwoman Lynn Rogers called Milton a diamond in the rough, but stressed that town officials also must end internal frictions and annex designated growth areas to make their future development benefit everyone. -- Cape Gazette   12/6/2005

Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/index.html

Salisbury Zoning Commission Seeks More Revisions to Plan Converting Old Shopping Mall to Mixed-Use Village

Chesapeake Realty Ventures LLC has twice revised its plans to redevelop Salisbury's old enclosed shopping mall into the mixed-use Village at Salisbury Lake, but the city Planning and Zoning Commission told the developer to make additional changes for its August meeting, which surprises the Salisbury Daily Times since the project meets Smart Growth guidelines for concentrating development ''in areas with existing infrastructure, especially where it can be served by municipal water and sewers.''

Promising high residential density in an area with ''municipal services and sufficient roads to handle the added traffic,'' the project also envisions restaurants, stores and offices that would let residents avoid many outside trips, the daily notes, calling the residual road-width issue important for public safety and emergency access, but considering the request for more recreational amenities, including a playground, inessential since the village targets seniors and singles.

''If the developer complies with the request for a playground, that is to his credit,'' the daily says. ''But approval should not depend on a playground -- unless the city also plans to provide parks and playgrounds for every residential neighborhood within its limits.''

Further delays and requests, the daily fears, ''will eventually cause the developer to give up and leave behind what is now a disgraceful eyesore on a piece of a prime real estate.'' -- Daily Times   7/24/2005

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Bi-Partisan Sprawl Prevention Act Would Help Keep Delaware from Subsidizing Uncontrolled Growth

''Subsidizing sprawl is a losing proposition for the taxpayers,'' said state Democratic Senator David P. Sokola in his press release on the ''Sprawl Prevention Act'' he just co-sponsored in the General Assembly with Republican Representative Robert J. Valihura, stressing that since ''state government foots most of the bill for roads, schools and other infrastructure, we all pay if development is scattered and unplanned.''

Welcoming the move as in line with its recent editorial call for putting ''some teeth'' in the Livable Delaware Initiative, launched by Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner in 2001, Delaware Coast Press hopes lawmakers will make the act a priority when they convene in January.

The act would let the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control bar ''stand-alone'' wastewater systems for large residential projects outside designated growth areas and require four-acre minimum lots for individual septic tanks in those rural-preservation zones. This would stop Sussex County officials from ignoring ''the widespread complaints'' and continuously approving projects on land environmentally fragile or targeted for preservation, the daily says, expecting the proposed bill to herald other efforts ''to shore up'' Livable Delaware and ''give it the backing it needs to quell uncontrolled growth.'' -- Delaware Coast Press   7/20/2005

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/index.html

Dover Officials Ready to Go Forward With Plan to Convert Eden Hill Farm to Mixed-Use Development

Illustrating the slow-motion decision-making process for better development increasingly demanded everywhere, state and Dover officials took two years to determine the best use for the 272-acre downtown-edge Eden Hill Farm, and the City Council needed another three before it unanimously decided to rezone the land from industrial to mixed-use, with traditional neighborhood design.

Fresh from a German trip, Councilman Eugene B. Ruane told the audience he was impressed with the feel of cities and towns he saw. ''They are very bike and pedestrian friendly,'' he said. ''If Eden Hills turns out that way, I'll be very happy.''

Functional for more than 250 years, until its garden center and greenhouse closed in December, reports Delaware State News writer Drew Volturo, the Scheller family farm will be redeveloped according to that long-neglected urban model. So far, project manager Gregory Moore envisions a 109-acre residential section offering a mix of 665 condos, duplexes, townhouses and single-family homes, an adjacent 15-acre commercial district, a 25-acre medical office area, and an 80-acre park.

The state, the writer adds, already bought 30 acres to preserve the farm's historic house and two tree alleys. Its full redevelopment is expected to take 10 years. -- Delaware State News   7/11/2005

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dm/central_delaware/

Dover Developer Offers Golf Course/Housing Plan as Alternative to Tech Park at Garrison Farm

When Dover got $2 million from the state's bond fund to buy the 380-acre Garrison farm east of Delaware 1, officials expected its eventual redevelopment into a technology park, but after City Council President Beverly C. Williams set up her Garrison Tract Commission last month to study different options, local developer Michael A. Zimmerman promptly offered to buy the farm, willing to build a 140-acre ''top-of-the-line public golf course'' as a gift to the city, and use the other 240 acres for an unspecified number of villas, cottages and town houses.

He said the golf course would cost him $5-$7 million, and the town houses would sell for under $199,000, which would ''create an affordable housing market.'' Council President Williams welcomed his letter, stressing, ''This is exactly what I want. I want entrepreneurs and developers to put on their thinking caps.''

But there may be zoning and other problems, reports Delaware State News writer Drew Volturo, quoting Central Delaware Economic Development Council Director Daniel W. Wolfensberg, who thinks the city would need legislative permission to use the farm for anything other than the intended technology park. ''That's the best use for the land,'' he said, concerned that the developer's proposal takes the council ''out of the ballgame with companies we want to attract.''

Although Governor Ann Ruth Minner's 2001 Livable Delaware program designates this Kent County area between Delaware 1 and coastal wildlife refuges some two miles east as a ''no-growth'' zone, the writer observes, the Garrison farm is exempt from restrictions, because it was targeted for development two years earlier. The new six-member tract-use study commission, led by Delaware State University President Dr. Allen L. Sessoms, has to submit a report to the Dover City Council by September 1. -- Delaware State News   3/8/2005

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/

Bethany Beach Extends Offer to Work With Millville Town on Mixed-Use Community

''Smart growth requires team work'' and ''strong intergovernmental relations,'' stresses a Bethany Beach Delaware Wave editorial, glad that Bethany Beach Councilman Jack Walsh told Millville Town, some four miles west, he was ready to participate in its planning for a 667-acre mixed-use community along Route 17 between the two towns, but it also hopes that Millville officials accept his offer, invite five other nearby towns to join the process, and consult regularly with state transportation experts.

By annexing the land and passing a master planned community ordinance, the editorial says, the Millville Town Council took first steps toward ''the state's first-of-its-kind development,'' which will essentially become ''a 'downtown Millville comparable to what was developed in Columbia, Md.'' But ''it is abundantly clear such a large-scale project will have a far-reaching impact on the area's surrounding communities,'' especially on the roads to the beaches.

''A development of this magnitude,'' the editorial adds, ''requires a great deal of area traffic consideration before the first structure is built.'' -- Delaware Wave   10/20/2004

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/index.html

Victory for Open Space Preservation as State Buys Defunct Garrison Lake Golf Club

As its almost two-year-long public action against turning the defunct 160-acre Garrison Lake Golf Club along U.S. 13 south of Smyrna into a massive residential complex prompted the state to buy the course, the area's Citizen Alliance for Responsible Growth (CARE) leader, Dover attorney Gary R. Dodge, thanked Governor Ruth Ann Minner, local officials and developer Jay Sonecha for this amicable solution that saves local quality of life, pledging his group's help to determine the green's best future.

According to a special warranty deed registered with the $3.41 million deal, no portion of the course ''shall ever be used for residential or non-residential 'for-profit' purposes or other private development or use,'' quotes Delaware State News writer Tom Eldred, with the CARE leader saying, ''With some effort, this could be restored to an extraordinary course and multi-use recreational facility.''

The purchase of the course became an option in June, when the legislative Bond Bill Committee identified it among five targeted properties, earmarking $20 million for their acquisition. The money, the writer adds, will come from the Delaware Department of Transportation's corridor preservation program, which saves open space along heavily traveled roads. -- Delaware State News   9/28/2004

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dm/central_delaware/

Sussex County Communities Urged to Think Now About Future Quality of Life

Spreading west from ocean beaches, ''residential growth is exploding in Southeastern Sussex County,'' and although many large projects are still far from approval, residents already should think about their future quality of life, points out a Bethany Beach Delaware Wave editorial, addressing them with this appeal, ''Please, get involved. If you would like to see your communities experience smart growth, in a way we can all be proud of, plan now for what could happen later.''

The towns under strongest pressures are Millville, Dagsboro and Millsboro, about three, 10 and 13 miles from the shore, respectively. The latter two, the editorial notes, have just drawn up their comprehensive land-use plans and developers have rushed in with plans for bigger and better managed neighborhoods, unheard of 20 years ago. The smallest one, Millville, is thinking about ordinance changes and annexation of 678 acres that could more than double its size.

State, county and local officials are looking 10 to 20 years ahead, and residents and property owners should do the same and offer their input. The editorial tells them to find out how their town councils operate, and watch out for public hearings and permit applications. ''But most of all, stop complaining,'' the editorial concludes. It's easy to say you don't agree or take the 'not in my backyard' stance. It takes more effort to attend town council meetings and be a part of the solution.'' -- Delaware Wave   9/22/2004

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/

Writer Requests Task Force to Assess Impact of Planned Sussex County Development

Seeing increased development, traffic congestion and beach flooding in Sussex County's coastal region, and blaming the County Council for apparent disregard of Governor Ruth Ann Minner's Livable Delaware program of centering construction in designated growth areas and promoting mixed land uses, Dagsboro resident Bill Patterson points out that the county ''needs coordinated, adequate lead times for infrastructure upgrades and smart growth,'' and he asks the Democratic governor ''to take a 'hands-on' stance'' to ensure that the region remains an attractive destination.

The county's problem is, he tells the governor in a letter also sent to The Delaware Wave, that ''there is no one body looking at the big picture and acting accordingly.'' No one, he explains, is ''assessing the sum effect of all new and planned development and subdivisions without adequate infrastructure, including roads, traffic control, parking capacity and, more importantly, health and human services.''

Consequently, he asked the governor to double the tolls on coastal Route 1 and use half of the new revenue to upgrade local infrastructure; consider a ''congestion charge'' like one utilities use during peak-demand hours; and appoint a task force to assess the situation by September and recommend remedies. -- The Delaware Wave   8/18/2004

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/index.html

$20M Earmarked to Preserve Kent County Green Tracts

Sharing local residents' concerns over a plan to build some 300 homes on the 160-acre Lake Golf Club course near Smyrna, Kent County, the legislative Bond Bill Committee earmarked $20 million for the state Department of Transportation's (DelDOT's) corridor preservation program, to save this and four other green tracts from development, with DelDOT Secretary Nathan Hayward III saying, ''All of them are located on very small, very congested roads, all of which are in scenic areas.''

Appreciative of the move and all who made it possible, Citizens Alliance for Responsible Expansion (CARE) leader and Dover attorney Gary R. Dodge -- his group formed 15 months earlier to preserve the course -- hopes it can be upgraded and diversified in the future ''to increase its intrinsic value to the community.''

Noting the areas' rapid residential growth in the last few years, with some 1,500 senior homes coming within five years, he said, ''There could be swimming lessons for children, golf and tennis lessons, not just a facility for middle-aged golfers.''

The course's prospective developer, Jay Sonecha of Blenheim Homes, also welcomes the preservation move, his attorney Mark F. Dunkle saying, ''we would like to thank Secretary Hayward, who led the state's initiative.''

The four additional properties slated for acquisition under the DelDOT's corridor preservation program, report Delaware State News writers Tom Eldred and Joe Rogalsky, are a smaller golf course and two green sites in New Castle County, and 735 acres along the Rehoboth Bay western shore in Sussex County. -- Delaware State News   7/1/2004

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dm/central_delaware/

Developer, State Officials Discuss Sussex County ''Rural Village'' Plans

Under Delaware's new procedure that lets developers and state planning and transportation officials address potential project problems before formal plans are submitted, Rehoboth Beach developer Glen T. Urquhart is discussing with them a proposed dense ''rural village'' on 842 acres north of Milton, Sussex County, with his plan consultant, national smart-growth expert Randall Arendt, saying the possible 1,672 varied-style homes, including units for seniors, would be built in clusters around a central green, to maximize open space and save a tract of forest.

Named Isaac's Glen, the village would feature a town hall, an 18-hole golf course, an artificial river, and perhaps some commercial space along the intersecting state highway, reports Delaware writer Molly Murray, calling it ''a place where people young and old know their neighbors and gather in town for a leisurely cup of coffee.'' The project would require rezoning the area for higher residential density, which may antagonize local farmers.

Noting that the area includes hundreds of acres under permanent protection or incorporated into agricultural preservation districts, the writer quotes state farmland preservation officer and land planner Mike McGrath, who says, ''It's a real serious problem. Farmers become a minority in their own neighborhood.'' -- News Journal   6/16/2004

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/index.html

Dover Mixed-Use Complex Planned for Seniors

Envisioning ''the first senior campus in Delaware,'' local businessman L.D. Shank hopes to turn a 9.5-acre west Dover site, including an old lodge and just-closed gas station, into a $25-million mixed-use complex of 192 apartments, doctors' offices, a drugstore and a bank -- all adjacent to the Modern Maturity Center and all within easy walking distance for senior residents.

''I think it's what we call in the trade a grand slam home run,'' the businessman tells Delaware State News writer Drew Volturo. ''People are already lining up for the first building.''

Modern Maturity Center executive director Carolyn Fredricks is equally excited. ''What better place to have senior apartments than right next to the largest senior center in Delaware,'' she says, expecting some of the center's residents to take apartments -- at about $700 a month -- while still depending on its recreation, fitness, nutrition and other services along with all newcomers.

And since a nearby vacant supply building may be redeveloped as a school with a kindergarten, the businessman adds, ''Seniors could go there and volunteer to read to the kids.'' -- Delaware State News   6/11/2004

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dm/central_delaware/

NIMBY Sentiments Could Sink New Castle County Smart Growth Project

Devised to curb New Castle County's suburban sprawl, the 1997 Unified Development Code practically ensures approval for projects that follow its strict guidelines, but a smart-growth community of 1,900 diversified housing units and some commercial space envisioned by developer Jay Sonecha on 1,300 acres north of Middletown -- with almost half of the land to be left undeveloped -- may get blocked anyway by local not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) forces.

They appeared in mass at a recent planning board hearing, much of their opposition reflecting ''the fear of any type housing that didn't match their own ideal of big houses on big lots -- the very definition of sprawl,'' writes Delaware News Journal columnist Al Mascitti, expecting the outcry to continue at the prospective County Council hearings.

They will be required because the developer, who also purchased development rights to a nearby 300-acre farm to keep it undeveloped, is entitled to higher housing density on his site.

''There is nothing wrong with letting opponents have their say if council members afterward stand up to the not-in-my-back-yard pressure,'' the columnist notes, concluding, ''Whether this collection of timid politicians is capable of that, especially in an election year, remains to be seen.'' -- News Journal   5/20/2004

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/

Pedestrian-Friendly Historic Urban Park Planned for Dover

With more than a million cars passing through Dover each year, many on the way to the Delmarva Peninsula oceanic beaches, Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner signed an executive order to create a pedestrian-friendly, historic urban park in ''one of the most beautifully preserved capitals in the country,'' aiming to increase tourism and ''make it easier for people to enjoy the great culture and history Dover has to offer.''

The tentatively called First State Historical Park, reports Delaware State News writer Drew Volturo, will link the Old State House, Legislative Hall, the Biggs Museum of American Art and similar centuries-old buildings downtown, along with the Delaware Public Archives, the Johnson Victrola Museum, the Museum of Small Town Life and other historic sites throughout the city.

Under the executive order, a task force of 13 state, city and community officials will propose initial service, security, marketing and infrastructure enhancements by October 1, and submit its final report next March.

''This will be similar to Independence Park in Philadelphia,'' said project director Elaine Brenchley, with Kent County Tourism director Mary Skelton and Dover Mayor-elect Stephen R. Speed certain the historic park designation will boost downtown business and overall revitalization. -- Delaware State News   4/22/2004

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dm/central_delaware/

As Farm Acreage Losses Increase, Delaware's Conservation Efforts Become More Urgent

Although Delaware has spent some $80 million in state, local and federal money to preserve about 80,000 acres under the purchase of development rights program launched in 1996, it also lost ten percent of its farms while farm acreage dropped by eight percent in 1997-2002 -- as opposed to national averages of four and two percent -- which made the state's bipartisan land conservation efforts even more urgent, with Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner allocating $8.9 million for the program in her proposed FY 2005 budget, and House Republicans considering a steady $10-million-a-year stream of funding from the lottery or cigarette taxes.

In FY 2003, the Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation spent $7.3 million for development rights to 5,553 acres; this fiscal year, thanks to higher federal and county contributions, it will spend $13.7 million for rights to more than 6,000 acres, said Department of Agriculture land use planning chief Michael McGrath, saying the $8.9 million in the gubernatorial budget for FY 2005, beginning in July, will likely bring in increased federal and local funds, and ''We should be able to do better than this year.''

Also, Delaware State News writers Hilary Corrigan and Joe Rogalsky expect House Republicans to seek action on their $10-million-a-year bill (HB 312) next month, when lawmakers return from their six-week budget break. -- Delaware State News   2/19/2004

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Gov. Minner Proposes Green Infrastructure Program to Preserve Delaware's Undeveloped Land

Confident that Delaware faces ''a new era of opportunity'' in the economy, education, public health and the environment, Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner asked lawmakers in her State of the State address to support her ''as we work to reduce pollution in our state and to protect even more of our valuable land from development.'' In ''the largest air pollution reduction in the history of the state,'' the governor said, the Delaware City oil refinery will cut sulfur dioxide emissions ''by more than 28,000 tons each year,'' and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will start ''a process to reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury from Delaware's commercial power plants.''

Listing a Livable Delaware among constant priorities of her administration, the governor said ''(s)ince 2001, we have preserved more than 4,300 acres of open space and protected more than 34,000 acres of farmland from development,'' but ''we must seize the chance to save one of our most precious resources -- our undeveloped land.'' Therefore, she announced, ''I will propose $22 million for a new Green Infrastructure program,'' which ''will seek opportunities to join with environmental groups and work towards preserving some of the most important natural habitats in our state.''   1/22/2004

Resource(s): http://delaware.gov/

Dover's Comprehensive Plan Includes Focus on Preservation of Historic City Center, Older Buildings and Neighborhoods

Although Dover, Delaware's capital since 1777, is targeting more than 1,000 acres along city borders for annexation and future development, its updated comprehensive plan, approved this year, introduces a whole chapter on historic preservation to promote the city's historic city center and expand protection to other old buildings or neighborhoods. The Dover Historic District Commission Chairman, architect C. Terry Jackson, says ''The reason why one buys property in the historic district is because of regulations. They protect the value of homes and ensure they are properly maintained.'' Acting city planning director Dawn Melson observes, ''You can really tell a lot about the history of the town just from driving down the State Street corridor,'' which is part of the Victorian Dover Historic District, included in the National Register of Historic Places along with the downtown Dover Green Historic District. Besides ''the prestige of living in a centuries-old house,'' notes Delaware State News writer Drew Volturo, owners can also obtain city, county, state or federal tax credits for renovation. Local developer Michael Zimmerman, who spent $700,000 to renovate the former Richardson Hall on North State Street and received a one-time $180,000 tax credit, says, ''The historic district is an excellent opportunity to preserve an area or residential and commercial sites so people can see the style of the properties during their original use.'' -- Delaware State News   10/14/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

State Housing Authority Announces $60 Million in Low-Interest Loans for Delaware's First-Time Homebuyers

Backed by the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) is issuing $60 million bonds to finance low-interest mortgage loans for first-time home buyers in low-to-middle income brackets, with Governor Ruth Ann Minner stressing that ''(o)wning a home is part of the American dream and companies want that for their employees'' and that ''(a)ffordable homeownership offers a great opportunity to make an investment in people and our state.'' The program's lending institutions, reports Dover Newszap service writer Joe Rogalsky, will offer initial 4.95 percent interest rates, in contrast to the national average of 6.13 percent for a 30-year fixed mortgage or even 6.95 percent if a borrower gets a grant for the down payment and other loan costs. The gross income level is limited to $62,800 for an individual or a two-person household in Kent and Sussex counties and to $70,000 in New Castle counties; for larger households the ceiling is $72,220 and $80,500, respectively. With the new DSHA bond money, said Governor Minner, the amount available to first-time home buyers since she took office in 2001 will be almost $10 million higher than the total in the previous six years, benefitting about 1,400 lower-income residents. -- Dover Newszap   10/11/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/display/inn_dover/

State Withdraws Aid to Smyrna in Light of 500-Acre Annexation Plan

In the first-ever Livable Delaware growth-management program sanction, the state decided to withhold almost $2.9 million in aid to Smyrna, Kent County, which is ready to annex 500 acres in adjacent New Castle County for development in defiance of the state land-use plan that leaves them rural, with Democratic Governor Ann Ruth Minner saying the intent ''is not to hurt the citizens of Smyrna,'' but ''Livable Delaware is about guiding growth to areas where the state, county and local government have prepared for it,'' and Smyrna Republican Mayor Mark G. Schaefer calling the fund withdrawal an ''unnecessary and foolish step that will not change anything.'' Other towns ''have sat down with us'' and worked out disputed growth issues, but in this case, the governor said, ''Kent County, New Castle County and the state have serious concerns about the town's ability to provide sewer and all the other services to 500 acres that our citizens were told would stay rural and require little investment.'' The governor's former top adviser and architect of Livable Delaware, economic development deputy director Lee Ann Walling, said the sanction shows the rules and regulations ''have teeth.'' Unless Smyrna forgoes the annexation, reports Dover Newszap service writer Joe Rogalsky, it will lose a $1.95 million loan for a water line extension and a storage tank replacement, $660,000 for downtown street improvements, $250,000 for a transportation study, and a $15,000 matching grant for community greenway planning. Smyrna town manager David S. Hugg III blamed state officials for ''sending a very dangerous message'' that means ''do not make the governor or her staff mad about anything.'' But other local officials, including leaders of the Delaware League of Local Governments and the Sussex County Association of Towns, support the decision. The association's head, Dagsboro Mayor S. Bradley Connor, wrote in a letter, ''(t)he action of one government should not be allowed to cause problems for the other local governments of Delaware.'' -- Dover Newszap   8/13/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

New Castle County Smart Growth Project Hinges on Transfer of Development Rights Program

Hailed by Delaware officials as another example of smart growth, developer Rick Woodin's two higher-density projects, involving the creation of a transfer of development rights (TDR) program in Middletown, New Castle County, have moved forward, as the Town Council rezoned 484 acres from industrial to residential-commercial use for his proposed neotraditional West Town, with about 500 homes and townhouses near small shops, and 115 acres for a 310-unit adult community. The developer says the TDR program would help him preserve more than 500 acres on the town's rural edges, writes News Journal reporter Melissa Tyrrel, noting that the program lets developers build more densely since they pay farmers in other areas for keeping their land intact, with the price per acre roughly equal to what it would it be if sold for development. Similar to his earlier-approved 286-acre, 500-home Parkside project, the writer adds, West Town would cluster homes and townhouses on varied-size lots, with shallow setbacks and old-fashion alleys, while the adjacent commercial area would include shops, a clubhouse, a day care center and possibly a farmers' market. The project would also feature tree-lined walkways, public gardens, a pool and a seven-acre lake. Since some residents are concerned about the placement of townhouses, Mayor Kenneth Banner promised further public hearings on the project design. -- News Journal   8/5/2003

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/

Smyrna Announces Plan to Annex 500 Kent County Acres

Although a plan by Kent County's town of Smyrna to annex about 1,200 rural acres in adjacent New Castle County met that county's strong resistance and was subsequently rejected by Governor Ruth Ann Minner as at odds with her Livable Delaware growth-management initiative, Smyrna officials intend to annex no less than 500 acres, dismissing state Planning Director Constance C. Holland's warning that this ''sets the tone for a lot of animosity between the town and the state'' and may cost the town state funds for roads, utility lines and open space. Smyrna Mayor Mark G. Schaeffer told Dover Newszap service writer Drew Volturo that the loss of funds might not be a problem since the new Del. 1 ''has a cloverleaf dropping right in the middle'' of the targeted area and local landowners seeking annexation know they would have to secure water and sewer lines for any development project. Noting that the annexation ''would not cost Smyrna taxpayers one red cent'' and could generate enough revenue to cut the town's electric rate, he said the land in question faces development regardless of jurisdiction and annexation would let town officials influence its type. Smyrna's planning and zoning commission, the writer adds, recommended medium-to-low-density residential and business park zoning for the land, likely to be annexed in late September or early October. -- Dover Newszap   7/18/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover

Future of Wilmington's Downtown Revitalization May Hinge on Success of Rodney Square Project

The biggest downtown Wilmington project ever, the $50-million conversion of the fire-damaged and long-vacant 13-story Delaware Trust Building into 280 luxury apartments opening in September as The Residences at Rodney Square, is generally considered a key litmus test for the city -- its success may spark downtown revitalization, but its failure may deter further downtown investment. The developer, Christopher Buccini of the Buccini/Pollin Group, is hoping for the best, his marketing brochure telling prospective renters, ''Step outside your door to the Market Street Mall with a selection of shops, restaurants and galleries (a)nd the most captivating of Wilmington's entertainment and nightlife is all around you.'' By the end of June, writes Wilmington News Journal reporter Maureen Milford, 20 apartments -- ranging from $790 a month for a studio to $2,300 for a two-bedroom unit with a den -- were leased and another 70 reserved. Besides the building's location at the highest downtown point, allowing expansive city views, and its 24-hour fitness center, convenience store, parking garage and other amenities, the relatively high rental prices should also draw tenants, says National Multi Housing Council chief economist Mark Obrinsky, noting that for the past ten years high-end apartments have been popular with people who could easily afford a house but prefer an urban lifestyle. Among factors potentially adverse to the project's success, the writer lists the sluggish national economy, Delaware's loss of 2,000 jobs since May 2002, its 13-percent rental vacancy rate -- almost twice the national average -- and Delawareans' reluctance to live downtown. A 2001 study by Edward C. Ratledge at the University of Delaware's Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research found the number of residents ready for city living increased from 3 to 7 percent since 1995, but more than 27 percent preferred suburbs, more than 37 percent chose the countryside and 19 percent liked small towns. -- News Journal   6/30/2003

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/business/

Kent County's New Subdivision Ordinance Offers Stronger Protections for Streams, Wetlands

Drafted over the previous 15 months and fine-tuned in May to reflect additional state and local concerns, Kent County's new subdivision ordinance, which requires more diversified project designs and better open space protection, got a unanimous approval from the county Regional Planning Commission and was sent to Levy Court for a final public hearing and vote June 24. Meant to replace its 30-year-old ''cookie-cutter'' version, the new ordinance will be updated every five years -- a provision the state mandates for comprehensive plans -- and will bar subdivisions on wetlands and the 100-year flood plain, along with clearing of woodland on the banks of ''total maximum daily load'' streams, reports Dover Newszap service writer Drew Volturo. He quotes Commissioner Paul Davis, who says some things will likely ''need to be tweaked as we go along,'' but calls the ordinance ''a good start'' toward protecting the county's quality of life. 06.12.2003   6/12/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Developer Cuts Homes, Adds Green Space to Proposed Smyrna Subdivision

Hard pressed by the grassroots Citizens Alliance for Responsible Expansion (CARE), developer Jay Sonecha substantially revised a subdivision concept for the 161-acre Garrison Lake Golf Club along U.S. 13 south of Smyrna, by reducing the number of homes from 450 to 308, increasing its open space from 38 to 51 acres, adding an entrance away from the adjacent Hickory Ridge neighborhood and making other design changes sought at his three voluntary meetings with area residents. He now proposes, report Dover Newszap service writers Tom Eldred and Drew Volturo, almost two miles of streets with one side open toward green spaces; trees on both sides of all streets; sidewalks in front of all houses; a hiking and biking trail; and on-site storm water ponds, to minimize runoff toward the Hickory Ridge side. CARE organizer, Dover attorney Gary Dodge isn't convinced all this is enough to protect local quality of life, while Kent County planning director Michael J. Petit de Mange explains that this pre-application concept provides material for further discussion, after which a preliminary subdivision plan, with engineering details, must be reviewed by the county Regional Planning Commission. The writers also quote Governor Ruth Ann Minner's spokesman Gregory Patterson, who says the governor is still looking into a possibility of saving the golf course. -- Dover Newszap   5/21/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Citing Lack of Infrastructure Plans, Gov. Miller Blocks Smyrna Land Annexation

As the Livable Delaware Advisory Committee split 9-9 on a Smyrna comprehensive plan's proposal to reach across the Kent County line and annex about 1,200 rural acres in New Castle County for future commercial and residential projects, Governor Ruth Ann Miller blocked the town's intent because state plans envision no road and sewer improvements for the area, with her economic development deputy director Lee Ann Walling stressing, ''If we said it was OK to put development there, we would have been contradicting ourselves.'' Should the town insist on the annexation, it would forsake state funds for sewers and other infrastructure, reports Dover Newszap service writer Joe Rogalsky, quoting Smyrna Mayor Mark Schaeffer, who says, ''Livable Delaware is a good program, but this is virgin territory. We will continue to work through the process.'' The writer notes that the town may try to annex a smaller area or delay the annexation until the state updates its comprehensive plan late next year. -- Dover Newszap   5/16/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Smart Commute Initiative Would Boost Delaware Transit Use, Home Ownership

With car-ownership costs in most American households identified as their largest expense after rent or mortgage and accounting for almost one-third of spending by many low-income families, Delaware's new public-private Smart Commute Initiative will boost both home ownership and transit use, by giving prospective buyers additional qualifying points for mortgages on homes near bus or rail stops and extending this financial incentive to state employees who participate in van pools. Launched last month by Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner, Democratic Senator Tom Carper and representatives from the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), Citizens Bank and Fannie Mae, the Smart Commute Initiative applies to purchase of homes within a three-quarter-mile radius of a bus or rail stop, which may account for additional income of $250 a month ($3,000 a year) in two wage-earner households or $200 a month ($2,400 a year) in single wage-earner households. Citizens Bank will consider these amounts as part of the borrowers' savings from transit use. As another incentive, DelDOT and its DART arm will offer buyers free six-week transit passes. Encouraging residents to buy homes near public transit, Governor Minner said, ''By taking advantage of the Smart Commute Initiative, home buyers are not only making ownership of their home more affordable, they are supporting Livable Delaware and doing their part to ease traffic congestion and sprawl.''   5/3/2003

Resource(s): www.state.de.us/planning

Woodside Development Blends Single Family Housing With ''Active Adult'' Homes

With each Delaware development proposal ultimately dependent on a traffic impact assessment and a road access permit by the state Department of Transportation, DelDOT planning division director Ralph A. Reeb II says a good example of state-developer cooperation to ensure adequate performance and corridor preservation is Harrington Realty's 100-acre ''planned unit development'' of 276 varied-type dwellings, whose residents ''will be able to walk to the store or ride a bicycle.'' Called Longacre Village and situated on an apple orchard along U.S. 13 near Woodside, in an area targeted for growth by both the state and Kent County, reports Dover Newszap service writer Tom Eldred, the project will offer single-family housing interspersed with units for ''active adults'' of at least 55. It will also include an 80-bed extended care facility, a convenience store, fast food outlet and bank. To optimize future traffic flow, DelDOT will prohibit southbound turns from Longacre Village, because motorists would have to cross the northbound lanes. Otherwise, the planning director adds, the project is one of the kind ''that we are trying to help and facilitate'' as compatible with the governor's Livable Delaware initiative.   5/3/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Land Use Controversy Brewing in Kent County Growth Zone

Another land use fight may soon be under way in Kent County as Blenheim Homes president and CEO Ray Sonecha wants to buy the 160- acre Garissons Lake Golf Club in a Cheswold-Smyrna growth zone for a 450-home subdivision, but the newly formed Citizens Alliance for Responsible Expansion (CARE) hails the recreational importance of the course for the area's quality of life and fears the dense project would hurt local property values. One CARE organizer, Dover attorney Gary. R. Dodge, reports Newszap news service senior writer Tom Eldred, told about 250 residents at a recent meeting that the ''battle needs to be taken to the developer to convey how unwelcome this project is and how determined the community is to stop it.'' This, he added, may include ''public demonstrations at Blenheim Homes' corporate offices, current projects and other selected sites.'' The developer remains undaunted. ''This should not be a campaign of intimidation and threats but rather a constructive dialogue between civic leaders,'' he pointed out, noting that the golf club has long been losing money and that its deed has no restrictions. Voicing his readiness for such a constructive dialogue with opponents, he said, ''We could end up with a win-win solution for everybody involved.'' -- Dover Newszap   4/18/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Kent County Officials Target Growth Zones in Proposed Ordinance

When subdivision applications climbed to more than 30 in the past ten weeks, exceeding the 2001-02 total, the Kent County Levy Court wanted to halt new ones until July to complete a new ordinance covering most aspects of project design -- but facing upset developers, the court decided to introduce the ordinance for public comments later this month and vote on a final version in May or June, while making it retroactive to the introduction date. Developers fear that the new ordinance will cost them more, noted Levy Court President David R. Burris, stressing, ''In the growth zone, it will be more user friendly. We're trying to make their lives easier and encourage growth in the growth zone.'' Former county planning director Constance C. Holland, presently with the state, said the 30-year-old current ordinance uses a ''cookie-cutter'' sprawl-type approach that splits a 100-acre parcel into 100 one-acre lots, with ''no open space, no protection of wetlands, no protection of trees and no good street design.'' Under the new ordinance, said assistant county planning director Sarah Keifer, the county ''can achieve its goal of preserving natural resources, but also allow developers options of how to achieve that goal.'' Aside from expanding the official and public project review process, reports Dover Newszap news service writer Drew Volturo, the new ordinance will establish seven street construction criteria, require a minimum percentage of lots along connected roads as opposed to cul-de-sacs, and make developers of projects with 51 or more lots install streetlights and create streetlight districts. -- Dover Newszap   3/13/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Suit to Halt Smyrna Wal-Mart Center Complains of Delayed Traffic, Pollution Reports

In a last-ditch effort to block the proposed $50-million Wal-Mart distribution center on 189 rural acres near Smyrna, Citizens for Smyrna-Clayton First attorney Richard L. Abbott told the Delaware Supreme Court that the site's truck service and repair facility ''is the most important of the zoning code violations'' and that its traffic impact, pollution and wetlands reports were submitted after officials approved the project, which deprived the public of the right to review and comment on the data. He also argued that since Smyrna planning commission member Memphis P. Evans gave no sufficient reasons for his July yes on the project, his vote should be invalid, which would have left the other commissioners split 2-2 and thus stopped the approval process. Smyrna town solicitor John T. Jaywork said officials did their best to gather public input and described the suit as based on ''nitpicking procedural minor defects.'' Wal-Mart local attorney John W. Paradee pointed out that plaintiffs have never shown they would suffer ''irreparable harm'' from the project and that planning commissioner Evans explained his pro-center reasoning in writing a few days after the vote. The attorney asked the court for a quick decision, noting that Wal-Mart paid $2.27 million for the site last month and is ready to start construction soon. Governor Ruth Ann Minner supports the Wal-Mart project as compatible with her Livable Delaware initiative and likely to create perhaps 1,000 jobs. Dover Newszap news service writer Drew Volturo adds that the Delaware Economic Development Office offered the company up to $1.2 million in incentives for permanent full-time jobs paying more than $12 an hour in wages and benefits. -- Dover Newszap   3/4/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Delaware State Sens. Ask Governor Minner to Reconsider Support for Wal-Mart Distribution Center

In the final act of a long fight over a Wal-Mart distribution center approved by the Smyrna Town Council and backed by Governor Ruth Ann Minner as compatible with her Livable Delaware vision, but opposed by several area lawmakers and brought by residents to the state Supreme Court hearing scheduled for March 4, state Democratic Senators Nancy W. Cook, Bruce C. Ennis and James T. Vaughn and Kent County Levy Court Commissioner P. Brook Banta asked the governor to reconsider her stance, calling the proposed center contrary to livable Delaware initiatives, ''which encourage, smart, considerate growth for our state and keeping our air and water clean.'' Wal-Mart opponents, reports Dover Newszap service writer Drew Volturo, insist that the company can find a better site than the one on two-lane state route 300, which is already crowded and unlikely to absorb the additional 600-1,500 daily trips by heavy trucks and other vehicles. In their letter to the governor, the four signatories also restate concerns that truck diesel fumes would increase risks of lung and respiratory ailments and that Wal-Mart storm water management provisions are still inadequate. Telling the writer that the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO) offered Wal-Mart a $1.2 million incentive -- $1,200 for each full-time employee getting more than $12 an hour in wages and benefits -- Commissioner Banta said, ''We need to aggressively look for a better location in Delaware. The governor has the authority to intervene, to call Wal-Mart.'' The writer adds that according to DEDO spokeswoman Jennifer Boes, Wal-Mart has not applied for the funds.   2/26/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Forest Mapping to Help Delaware Choose Preservation Tracts

Against the backdrop of Governor Ruth Ann Minner's celebratory proclamation on the 25th anniversary of the Delaware Natural Areas Program, whose natural preserves reached a total of 2,332 acres, Division of Parks and Recreation official Robert Line began updating the program with computer data and aerial photos, saying the ''threat to farmland and natural areas is going to increase, not decrease,'' and that's why the state is mapping all its forests, trying to decide ''which ones are the best for keeping.'' Among the key tracts eyed for preservation, reports Dover Newszap news service writer Hilary Corrigan, is the Blackbird area of northern Kent County and southern New Castle County, along with Kent County's western forests. Stressing the importance of state ownership and stewardship of land targeted for preservation, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control secretary John Hughes said, ''The only way we can guarantee it is when we own it and can control the development rights.'' -- Dover Newszap   2/10/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Gov. Minner Urges Del. Lawmakers to Advance Growth Planning in State of the State Speech

Proud of the state's national recognition for curbing sprawl, cracking down on polluters and becoming more livable, Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner urged lawmakers in her State of the State address to pursue further opportunities for making things better ''the Delaware way'' -- especially to pass anti-pollution ''industrial accountability legislation,'' advance county and municipal growth planning, and ensure both water and renewable energy supplies. With Delaware's environmental laws strengthened through the 2001 Environmental Right-To-Know Act and the 2002 Jeffrey Davis Aboveground Storage Tank Act -- one requiring full disclosure of any environmental accident; the other letting the state regulate potentially harmful chemical or other tanks -- the task is now, the governor said, to hold individuals responsible for damage done by their companies or their facilities. Her legislation, proposed together with Democratic Senator David McBride and Republican Representatives Wayne Smith and Robert Valihura, will accomplish that by setting ''a felony punishment for industrial officials who knowingly violate environmental standards and cause serious injury when they do.'' The legislation will also expand criminal penalties for false environmental adherence reports and clarify the state ability to shut down dangerous industrial facilities. In this context, the governor announced the creation of the Metachem Task Force to scrutinize factors behind the sudden Metachem bankruptcy and closure of its Delaware City facility, which ''saddled'' the state with cleanup of 40 million tons of chemicals and $75 million in costs. Promising other environmental and industrial- responsibility initiatives in the near future, the governor strongly encouraged further growth-management efforts under her Livable Delaware program. ''Because state taxpayers pay for the roads, schools and other services demanded by new development,'' she pointed out, ''we have asked our counties and towns to plan where they build and to build only where they plan.'' With all three counties and about two-thirds of municipalities ''reconsidering or adopting'' such plans, she said, the ''result, over time, will be more responsible and thoughtful growth.'' This the governor wants to facilitate by a legislative Land Use Planning Act change, to introduce ''a pre-application step'' for larger projects, which would ''bring together the developer, local governments and state agencies before a project is submitted for approval'' and let them avoid many of the ''last-minute objections and changes'' so often consuming the time and energy of everyone involved. And since the state's population growth, especially in the most urbanized northern part of New Castle County, demands strong action to secure adequate water supplies even in a drought, the governor proposed efforts to ensure that region's ''water self-sufficiency'' by 2010. She also expressed her hope to present lawmakers ''a first-ever comprehensive state energy plan'' next January, ''one that will provide incentives for homeowners and businesses to take part in the energy transition to renewable products.''   1/23/2003

Resource(s): www.state.de.us/governor/speeches/enstate.htm

Del. Senator Hopes to Preserve Land with Transportation Funds

''Part of the cost of building roads is preserving our state's open space and farmland,'' said Delaware Republican state Senator Robert J. Valihura, announcing a legislative push to shift 10 percent of Delaware's Transportation Fund -- totaling $450 million in fiscal 2003, not counting federal aid -- to the Open Space Council and the Aglands Preservation Foundation. The measure's co-sponsor, Republican Representative G. Wallace Caulk, a farmer and Delaware Farm Bureau official, said, ''We have preserved about $67 or $68 million worth of farmland so far, with another $60 million on the waiting list'' and stressed the need for a steady source of preservation money since the budget problems may force lawmakers to cut farmland allocations this year. The Open Space Council, reports Dover Newszap Service writer Joe Rogalsky, has a permanent source of funding and received $9 million from the Parks Endowment Fund in the fiscal year ending in June. The Aglands Preservation Foundation depends on appropriations and got $5 million for the current fiscal year. According to Department of Agriculture chief planner Michael McGrath this year's Agland funding, augmented by federal and county money, could reach $8 million. That, he said, could let the foundation preserve 5,700 rural acres at the 2001 average purchase price of $1,400 an acre. He added that since 1995, the state preserved almost 130,000 acres, including 65,000 permanently, and that 136 farms have recently applied for the program. State Budget Director Jennifer Davis said Governor Ruth Ann Minner and the budget office would ''scrutinize any plan'' to divert money from the Transportation Trust Fund. -- Dover NewsZap   1/8/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

New Land-Use Plan Passes Sussex County (Del.) Commission

A new Sussex County land-use plan -- a development and zoning guide updated every five years, already approved by the state Livable Delaware Advisory Committee and effective on January 1 -- passed the County Commission on a strict party vote, reports Dover Newszap writer Hilary Corrigan, with three Democrats considering it better than the previous one, but Republican Vance Phillips criticizing its state approval weeks ahead of the last public hearing and Republican George Cole blasting it as harmful to rural areas and ''deceptive'' to expectations of smart growth. ''This plan, for the most part, is dumb growth and Livable Delaware is making Delaware unlivable,'' he said, arguing it encourages big projects, allows construction in sensitive areas and makes only ''token attempts'' to alleviate environmental concerns with building restrictions for inland bay areas. ''Next thing you know,'' he added, ''we'll be promoting growth in the ocean.'' -- Dover Newszap   12/11/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Smyrna Mayor Revives New Road Idea to Ease Industrial Park Traffic

Just before a group of Smyrna and Clayton residents filed a court appeal against the Smyrna Town Council's recent approval of a huge Wal-Mart distribution center near both towns on Route 300 as procedurally flawed and glossing over traffic and pollution issues, Smyrna Mayor Mark G. Schaeffer revived the idea of building another road, writing state Secretary of Transportation Nathan Hayward III that a new road is needed ''as a result of increased development in the Smyrna/Clayton area and limitations of the existing transportation system.'' Citizens for Smyrna-Clayton First leader Michael McGrath said his group doesn't intend to stop the Wal-Mart project entirely, but wants the city to revisit the issue and apply thorough review procedures, because now ''We don't have the best project we could have.'' This, pointed out plaintiffs' attorney Richard L. Abbot, includes questions about Wal-Mart adherence to zoning code ''performance standards'' for noise and air pollution control and about the center's real traffic impact. In separate reports, Dover Newszap News Service writers Tom Eldred and Drew Volturo noted that according to a state transportation study the Wal-Mart center would increase Route 300 traffic by 750 vehicles a day -- mostly truck trailers -- an estimate downgraded later by the company's consultant to about 250 to 300 vehicles daily. Mayor Schaeffer didn't mention Wal-Mart in his letter asking for a state feasibility study on a new road, but reminded reporters that he and other town officials floated the idea for over a year, adding that the new road ''would substantially relieve a lot of the pressure on Del. 300 from the area of the industrial park.''   11/13/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/s-c/

Delaware DOT Eases Municipal Burden for Urban Transportation Enhancement Programs

The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) modified its urban transportation enhancement program, making it more flexible and effective in helping municipalities with their historic preservation, scenic landscaping and sidewalk or bike-path improvements. Authorized by Congress in 1991, the program requires states to put at least 10 percent of their federal transportation funds into non-road improvement projects, reports Dover Newszap news service writer Bill Potter, quoting DelDOT transportation coordinator David Petrosky, who mentions its three money-distribution changes. The 20-percent municipal match for each project was replaced with ''a sliding scale,'' under which municipal contribution goes down or up, depending on the project's size. The two-year project submission and review cycle was eliminated, which means municipalities can now submit projects any time for an immediate review, advice and authorization. The maximum reimbursement for a project was raised from $500,000 to $1 million. Municipal officials praise the changes, with Milton town clerk Jocelyn Jenkins seeing another helpful change in DelDOT's readiness to ''accept more of the administrative burden for small towns that can't afford an administrative staff.'' -- Dover Newszap   10/25/2002

Resource(s): http://www.newszap.com/dover/

New Traffic Numbers Don't Require Reassessment of Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Smyrna, Del.

Days after the Smyrna Town Council majority approved a hotly debated Wal-Mart distribution center, citing state transportation officials' opinion that a local two-lane road can handle the prospective 750 tractor-trailers a day, Wal-Mart project engineer Joe Loethen wrote the town that the daily truck number would only approach about 300 in a few years, with Mayor Mark G. Schaeffer, who voted for the project, saying next, ''It has always been 300 trucks. That is the number I have always based my review on.'' According to Dover Newszap service writer Drew Volturo, the numeric convolutions began with Wal-Mart's 300-truck estimate in January, raised to 500 in July and to 750 in a subsequent submission to the state Department of Transportation, with the newest letter offering a 250 to 300 initial number, elevated to 500 for heavy-demand periods and 750 as a ''worst-case scenario,'' perhaps several years ahead or perhaps never. State transportation county coordinator T. William Brockenbrough Jr., said the department doesn't need to reassess the traffic study, because if it ''worked for 750 trucks, it should work for 300.'' A member of the area's coalition opposing the project, Smyrna resident Michael McGrath, said there is ''a very good chance'' of a lawsuit, adding ''The whole thing doesn't pass the sniff test. At this point, we could draw numbers out of a hat and do a better job than these people.'' -- Dover Newszap   9/19/2002

Resource(s): http://www.newszap.com/s-c/

Site Approved for Smyrna Wal-Mart Distribution Center

Despite protests from most of the 350 residents and some area officials in the audience, the Smyrna Town Council approved a site plan for the 1.2 million-square foot Wal-Mart distribution center on the town's outskirts, with four supporting members, including Mayor Mark G. Schaeffer, relying on positive evaluations by the state Department of Transportation and the Kent Conservation District, both questioned by two opposing councilmen. The department, reports Dover Newszap service writer Drew Volturo, agreed with the Wal-Mart traffic impact consultant that local two- lane Delaware 300 can handle the prospective 750 tractor-trailers a day and the Kent Conservation District found the conceptual plan acceptable although the review of sediment and stormwater control measures still has to be completed. A Citizens for Smyrna-Clayton First group that is fighting the center retained an expert to review the traffic impact study, with its attorney Elwood T. Eveland Jr., cautioning the town council that by approving the plan, they will close the public ''deliberative process before all the questions are answered.'' A former department employee, C. David Jamison, said the study failed to consider vehicle length and intersection crossing time and compared the center location to ''a square peg in a round hole.'' Kent County Levy Court Commissioner P. Brooks Banta expressed many others' concern over the site's runoff, saying ''It will carry pollutants into Mill Creek and eventually, Lake Como.'' -- NewsZap.com   9/11/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

''Safe Routes to School:'' Pedestrian, Bicycle Route Grants for Delaware Schools

With national data showing that only 25 percent of children walk or bike to school, because parents fear distance, traffic, weather and crime, Governor Ruth Ann Minner signed a bill launching a ''Safe Routes to School'' program, under which the state Department of Transportation will use federal money as grants to schools and school districts for walkways, bicycle routes and their safety improvements. Sponsored by state Democratic Senator David Sokola and Republican Representative Rober Valihura, the bill authorizes the department to award these grants based on a statewide competition. The governor expressed her hope that the program will spur walking and biking among children, noting that car trips to school and elsewhere contribute not only to their obesity, but also to road congestion, air pollution, safety risks and energy consumption. -- NewsZap.com   9/10/2002

Resource(s): http://www.newszap.com/archives/

Smyrna, Del., Gives Residents Additional Time to Review Plans for Wal-Mart Distribution Center

In the arduous process of shepherding a huge Wal-Mart distribution center project on the outskirt of Smyrna through local opposition, the city council delayed its final public hearing and vote on the site plan for 18 days ''as a courtesy to residents,'' to let them look at the technical reviews once they are completed before the council meets on September 9. Saying everyone is confident the reviews will be ready on time, Mayor Mark G. Schaeffer hopes the meeting will ''adequately address all of the concerns associated with the site plan, including stormwater management and traffic mitigation.'' But timely completion of the reviews is far from certain, reports Dower Newszap service writer Drew Volturo, quoting Kent Conservation District program manager Jared Adkins, who says the agency has sent Wal-Mart its first comments on the plan's compliance with state sediment and stormwater regulations, and is still awaiting the company consultant's answers to questions about downstream flooding and water quality. A spokesman for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Michael Williams, said the department received a response to its questions about the project's traffic impact. According to Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris, the delay will allow the company to answer more questions, but shouldn't affect the construction schedule, with the ground breaking this fall and the opening a year later. -- Newszap   8/14/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Conservation Easement Secures Former du Pont Estate from Development

Planning for a greater cultural role and wider public access to the historic 1,000-acre former family estate of Henry F. du Pont, the nonprofit Winterhur Museum Garden and Library, six miles north of Wilmington, donated a conservation easement to the Brandywine Conservancy, with Winterhur board chairman Bruce C. Perkins confident that the land ''will never see a housing subdivision, a big-box store or a strip mall.'' Du Pont cousin George A. Weymouth, who co-founded the conservancy in 1967 and put his land under its permanent protection, remembers his late cousin as ''adamant'' that this inherited estate ''not be ruined, spoiled or compromised.'' Winterhur director Leslie Greene Brown feels relieved that the land's fate won't depend on future boards, should they face a ''financial reversal.'' Philadelphia Inquirer writer Sandy Bauers notes that over the years sprawl has edged ''ever closer to Winterhur's pastoral borders,'' with 19 homes built just north of it two years ago, and that developers don't seem inhibited even by such historic treasures as Pennsylvania's Valley Forge National Historical Park and Washington Crossing State Park, having proposed 62 homes for a corner of the first and an office complex next to the second. The Winterhur donation, the writer adds, increases Brandywine Conservancy easement holdings to 1680 acres. Other groups working for preservation of open space in northern Delaware and southern Pennsylvania include Woodlawn Trustees, which controls 2,000 acres; the Delaware Greenway, which has fought for designation of Routes 52 and 100 as the state's first ''scenic and historic'' highways; and the Delaware Nature Society, which has worked with owners to preserve 105,700 acres of rural and natural land. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer   7/25/2002

Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/

120-Acre Wal-Mart Distribution Center Closer to Approval in Smyrna

A 120-acre Wal-Mart distribution center planned near Smyrna's industrial park will have about 285 tractor trailers and employee cars in and out at the peak 6 to 7 a.m. hour and 465 at the 4 to 5 p.m. peak, but Delaware 300 and intersecting roads are due for improvements anyway and once improved can handle this increased traffic, asserted Wal-Mart consultant Ted Williams of Landmark Engineering at the planning and zoning commission hearing, which satisfied three of the five commissioners, who ignored protests from most of ''the boisterous crowd'' of 350 and voted for the site plan. Noting that two area elected officials, Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Brooks Banta and state Representative Bruce C. Ennis, also spoke against the plan, Dover Newszap news service writer Joe Rogalsky quotes Commissioner Memphis P. Evans, who said the center will bring ''badly'' needed jobs ''for the younger generation.'' He was joined by Commissioners Eunice C. Fountain and Donald F. Neizer, while Commissioners M. Richard Bryson and Connie L. Myers voted against sending the plan to the Town Council for consideration next month, seeking more time to study the center's impact on the community and the environment. The writer adds that addressing earlier aesthetic and environmental concerns, Wal-Mart agreed to plant 400 six-foot cyprus trees on 12-foot berms around the site, reduce its nightly illumination and filter its polluted drainage water. -- Dover Newszap   7/23/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Delaware Town Seeks to Balance Commercial and Residential Development

With Smyrna, Kent County, poised to annex 120 acres on its northern edge in New Castle County for a freezer warehouse distribution center with up to 800 jobs, Town Manager and former state planner David S. Hugg III explains that under fiscal pressures, municipalities are seeking to expand their tax revenue and control adjacent development through annexations, which help ''spread the cost of public services over a large base.'' However, he points out that residential growth alone makes service improvement difficult and often results ''in higher taxes or utility rates.'' Elaborating on the subject, Mayor Mark G. Shaeffer tells Dover's Newszap news service writer Drew Volturo that to maintain quality of life without burdening residents with increased costs, municipalities short on developable land need annexations for further growth. But it's critical for them, the mayor stresses, to achieve ''a balance between commercial and residential development.'' The projected distribution center on New Castle County land slated by Smyrna for annexation, the mayor says, ''would generate an enormous amount of revenue in school and property taxes ... and hopefully we can pass along the savings to the residents.'' -- Dover Newszap!   6/28/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Transfer of Development Rights Bill Delayed in Delaware

Long in the works, a state-New Castle County deal, under which Governor Ruth Ann Minner would sign a one-year bill freezing municipal annexations of the county's land and the county would support a bill to implement a key portion of her Livable Delaware initiative by allowing transfer of development rights (TDR), was suddenly obstructed by the county's new doubts and by another group's attempt to make municipalities in all of the state's three counties secure county approvals for any annexation, prompting the governor to delay the TDR bill till the next session. New Castle County officials have claimed they are losing $900,000 in annual tax revenue due to municipal annexations, reports Dover's Newszap news service writer Tom Eldred, quoting senior gubernatorial adviser Lee Ann Walling, who said the state thought it had put ''everything in the TDR bill that New Castle County wanted,'' while a joint annexation subcommittee came up with annexation standards and the one-year county freeze idea. House Republican Majority Leader Wayne A. Smith, also baffled by the deal's collapse, said there was broad support ''for the TDRs but the administration was blindsided by (having it) linked to annexation,'' which ''has bogged down the whole process.'' Noting the governor's support for properly administered annexations, her advisor mentioned the example of Milton, Sussex County, which has recently annexed the 145-acre site of a former cannery for a Cannery Village project, with 538 single-family homes and apartments and some commercial space. The advisor said: ''You won't know where Milton stops and the development begins. It's part of the town like a good annexation should be. It's a quintessential Delaware project. There's a real mix of housing from more affordable to upscale. They're bringing in some light business. It's a nice mixed-use development.'' She added, ''There's no point in being part of a town if you're just going to create more sprawl. A town is supposed to be a community.'' -- Dover Newszap!   6/28/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Deal Struck to Preserve 186-Acre Smyrna, Delaware Farm

Delayed by gubernatorial intervention six months ago, the Smyrna Town Council's imminent approval of 460 homes on a 186-acre farm in an area chalked as mostly rural and recreational in the state's growth plan has ceased to be a divisive issue, with developers Kenneth Kershaw and Joseph Corrado turning to other options and the Delaware Department of Transportation, The Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation, the Open Space Council and Delaware State University pooling $2.4 million to buy the land for relocation of the university's research farm. ''I believe whenever governments disagree, we should continue to respect each other and try to work together,'' said Governor Ruth Ann Minner at a news conference on the Blendt family farm, thanking all involved in saving it, including Mayor Mark Schaeffer who was instrumental in the deal. She linked the farm's preservation with her livability agenda and expressed hope that its development rights will let builders increase housing density in areas targeted for growth. Wilmington News Journal reporter Charlotte Hale also quotes the dean of the university's College of Agriculture and Related Sciences, Kenneth W. Bell, who said the large farm will be used for botanical, aquacultural, ecological and similar research. -- The News Journal   6/21/2002

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/

Impact Fee Proposal to Slow Sprawl Cut from Delaware Capital Improvement Budget

Without Governor Ruth Ann Minner's objections, the Joint Bond Bill Committee removed part of her Livable Delaware plan to check sprawl -- proposed higher impact fees for home and business construction outside designated growth areas -- from the state capital improvement budget, with Republican Representative William A. Oberle Jr. calling the proposal ''very logical,'' but noting that ''something of this magnitude'' should be decided by full committees in both chambers rather than included in the bill's enabling, or epilogue, language sometimes used to carry through controversial measures. Senior gubernatorial adviser Lee Ann Walling said, ''We're not really sure they (the fees) will do the job of deterring development, so we'll have to look at them.'' Wilmington News Journal writer Patrick Jackson reports that under a complex assessment formula, builders in non-growth areas could have been charged up to $6,000 in extra fees to help the cost of additional roads, schools and police protection. The fees would have generated about $4.1 million of the $19.4 million, which a Livable Delaware study found necessary to accommodate the state's projected growth. -- The News Journal   6/19/2002

Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/

Developer Invites Public Comments for Bridgeville, Del. Project

Apprising the Bridgeville Town Commission and its standing-room-only audience of an Allen & Rocks public golf course and residential project planned just outside town limits, with up to 2,000 single-family homes, townhouses and condos -- in the $90,000 to $400,000 range -- expected over 10 to 15 years, the Virginia firm's representative, Robert D. Rauch, pledged to work with officials and residents for optimal benefits, saying ''It is not in our interest to come in and push anything down your throats.'' He said the project will resemble the firm's successful Easton Club community of 342 mixed-type housing units around a golf course in Easton, Maryland, which will soon be complemented by a 420-unit Easton Club East. He promised to mail residents a firm brochure, with a questionnaire that can be returned unsigned, and eager for his listeners to know what he was talking about, he offered them ''either a complimentary round of golf at Easton or a coupon for our restaurant.'' According to Dover's Online News & Information Service writer Darrell Neale, the town council's annexation vote might be several months away. He quotes the town commission president, Joe Conaway, who said one of the project's main benefits for residents would be its financial contribution to the upcoming sewer system improvements demanded by state law, which would otherwise cost them between $300 and $500 a year. -- Dover Online News & Information Service   6/13/2002

Resource(s): http://www.newszap.com/bridgeville/

Smyrna's Annexation Draft Seeks to Harmonize Development with Kent County Utility, School Plans

Expecting its population of 6,000 to triple within two or three decades and aiming to harmonize future services with Kent County utility and school blueprints -- the town of Smyrna has drafted an annexation plan, presented it to the state Office of Planning and Coordination for review and then the county's Levy Court for discussion, with the only issue foreseen by incoming town manager David S. Hugg III likely to involve residential density on the 1,000 acres the town seeks to incorporate. The town envisions four dwellings an acre, or 4,000 units, while the county's wastewater plan proposes three dwellings an acre, or 1,000 units fewer. County commissioners commended Smyrna officials for presenting the plan. Commissioner P. Brooks Banta welcomed their readiness to ''establish a good working relationship'' with the county. Commissioner David R. Burris, concerned about Smyrna's deteriorating downtown area, elicited assurance that town leaders are committed to its revitalization.   5/7/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover/

Land Preservation Effort Moves Forward Delaware's Sussex County

Encouraged by a letter from Governor Ruth Ann Minner, the Sussex County Council unanimously decided to join the developer-led Sussex County Land Foundation, promising $1 million for its purchases of farmland and development rights in this fast-growing county to preserve open space and wildlife habitat. Pointing out that Delaware's policy of land conservation allows use of public funds for that purpose, County Administrator Robert L. Stickels said the council will seat two members on the foundation's board of directors and may hold joint annual conferences to update residents on common plans and actions. Foundation chairman Craig Hudson, whose housing projects include the upcoming 500-home Villages of Five Points near Lewes, noted that the board will seek advice from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and from rural preservation groups on what conservation- worthy land to acquire. ''As developers, we've contributed quite a bit to the density of the county,'' he said, adding that now they want to preserve land for future generations.   4/24/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/display/inn_georgetown/news954.txt

Comprehensive Plan Approved in Delaware's Kent County

As the first of Delaware's three counties to finish the task, Kent County approved a new comprehensive plan, after adjusting boundaries of the growth zone where developers can build more housing units per acre and obtain state aid for infrastructure costs. By a 5-1 vote, with one abstention, the commissioners moved the zone's Milford boundary outside some rural land that local farmers want to keep undeveloped. They also extended the boundary's Woodside-Viola area section toward Alternate U.S. 113, to secure state funds to help build a sewage system for projects already under way. The county invested $600,000 in the system, said commissioner Ronald D. Smith, and leaving the area outside the growth zone would deprive it of state money, with area residents and the county forced to pay the whole ''multi-million'' sewer construction cost. But commissioner Paul Davis, who refrained from voting, noted that extending the growth zone boundary toward the already congested highway will make it more clogged and less safe for drivers. Commissioner Harold J. Peterman, who voted against the comprehensive plan, said Kent County is already overdeveloped and called the growth zone ''a density zone,'' which lends it ''a negative meaning'' for local quality of life. The state's two other counties, New Castle and Sussex, are expected to finalize their comprehensive plans by April 1.   3/24/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Forum on Land-Use Plan Held in Sussex County, Delaware

Ahead of the Sussex County land-use plan update workshops starting in March, the local Positive Growth Alliance -- which promotes free enterprise and counters the anti-growth movement -- held an informational forum in Georgetown, with Governor Ruth Ann Minner's senior adviser Lee Ann Walling telling the 300 attendees that a ''sprinkling of density'' may not be a bad price for turning growth away from rural areas, Republican Representative Roger P. Roy calling new infrastructure a precondition of ''manageable growth'' and County Councilman Vance Phillips stressing the need to differentiate between ''environmental extremism and responsible environmentalism.'' Noting that the state requires the county to update the plan every five years, with a focus on transportation, infrastructure, development districts and open space, Newszap writer Hilary Corrigan quotes residents who found the meeting instructive and County Administrator Robert L. Stickels who urged public involvement in the planning process because ''it's going to affect everyone.'' The writer reported earlier that the administrator doesn't expect many changes to the plan's 1997 version, besides further restrictions for the coast, inland bays and other environmentally-sensitive areas. From his side, the executive director of the Positive Growth Alliance, Richard Collins, said the group isn't ''pushing for any big changes'' at this time, but wants people to know how they may be affected by impact fees or transfer of development rights. He added that although people oppose sprawl, the issue should be ''addressed at some point,'' because stopping it altogether would mean more congestion elsewhere.   2/21/2002

Resource(s): http://www.newszap.com/georgetown/

New Home Project Faces Uphill Battle in Smyrna, Delaware

Facing an uphill battle over a 460-home project on 198 rural acres annexed by Smyrna for open space even before last year's state restrictions on growth east of Delaware 1, Blendt Farm LLC developers asked the town council to table the rezoning request for at least a month, to give them time to address local concerns. ''We'd like to talk to more people and get our side of the story out there,'' said their lawyer Richard Forsten, adding that ''the town needs to be absolutely confident'' about the project and that developers ''don't want to rush into this.'' Newszap writer Joe Rogalsky reports from Smyrna that its planning commission unanimously rejected the proposal to rezone the tract from agricultural to residential use last month. He also cites strong criticism of the project by neighboring landowner Ted Wilson, who called it an example of ''poor land use and a result of no planning.'' Ted Wilson and his brother Jeff have placed their 600- acre wheat, corn and soybean farm -- with its two houses recognized as national historic landmarks -- in the state's land preservation program, to make sure it won't be developed. The writer notes that opponents and Smyrna Mayor Mark. G. Schaeffer are pleased by the temporary withdrawal of the rezoning request. Though still uncommitted, the mayor called the move ''honorable and gracious,'' adding, ''Compromise is always a great thing.''   2/14/2002

Resource(s): http://www.newszap.com/delmarva/

345 Acres Added to Delaware's Killens Pond State Park

For almost $2 million from the state's Open Space Program, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control acquired 345 acres of rural, forest and riparian land for inclusion in the 1,099-acre Killens Pond State Park, with Governor Ruth Ann Miner saying the acquisition ''will strengthen the state's efforts in providing important wildlife habitat, improving the quality of life for Delaware families and preserving the environment.'' The department's Division of Parks and Recreation director Charles A. Salkin promised further expansion of the Killens Pond park, which covered only 552 acres in 1965, stressing that for the first time ''we have a federal and state program that work hand in hand to preserve our land.'' With Killens Pond being ''the premiere hiking spot in Kent County,'' the division plans to add about five acres to its 10-mile ''network of hiking, fitness and bicycling trails.''   2/7/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/display/inn_delmarva/news06.txt

Land Preservation, Environmental Penalties Cited as Improvements In Delaware's Quality of Life

In the year since she took office, Delaware has become more livable, said Governor Ruth Ann Minner in her State of the State speech, emphasizing that the state has strengthened penalties for environmental pollution and taken the first step to curb sprawl ''by asking cities and towns to plan for growth, to grow only where they plan and by continuing to preserve farmland and open space.'' On her Livable Delaware legislative agenda this year, the governor listed a push for Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and for $5 million more to continue land preservation through purchases of development rights. A TDR program, similar to more than 100 already enacted across the country, will save farmland with private dollars and channel growth to urbanized areas, while allowing developers a bonus of increased density, the governor said. ''That scares people'' in receiving areas, she acknowledged, but stressed the benefits they gain. ''Neighborhoods where you can walk to school, the soccer field or the bus stop,'' she pointed out. ''Well-designed communities with ample open space and a convenient mix of uses. Efficient communities that focus our state investments.'' She said TDR county programs could let farmers stay in business despite the enormous pressure to sell as nearby farms turn into subdivisions and ''land values approach $20,000 an acre.'' The governor added that implementing Livable Delaware legislation the General Assembly passed last year, the Livable Delaware Advisory Committee under Lt. Gov. John C. Carney is devising ''first-in-the-nation statewide impact fees that will capture new growth's fair share of capital spending in areas outside the state's growth zones.'' Such fees, the governor said, will help ''channel growth away from those areas where the state and counties have planned little or no investment in roads, sewers, schools and other infrastructure.''   1/17/2002

Resource(s): www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,CSPEECH^D_3091,00

Delaware Farmers Hope Program Will Save Land from Development

Tempted with offers exceeding ten times their 1980s land values, many farmers in rural southern New Castle County -- in easy reach of Wilmington and Philadelphia -- place their last hopes for keeping the farms in Governor Ruth Ann Miller's push for the final part of her Livable Delaware anti-sprawl initiative, the still drafted legislation on Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs). Noting that the governor has already secured graduated impact fees, local planning and annexation standards, open space protection and brownfield redevelopment, Associated Press writer John Biemer quotes her senior policy adviser Lee Ann Walling, who says, ''We want to get farms that are on the fringe of being developed.'' The governor's TDR legislation, sponsored by Democratic Senator George H. Bunting, Jr. late in the 2001 session and eventually withdrawn to allow a longer debate, goes beyond state law permitting county TDR programs, requiring them by a specific date. Delaware Chamber of Commerce president Suzanne Moore likes transfer of development rights because it saves farmland and money. She says expanding infrastructure to support greater densities in the receiving zones is far less costly than laying it from scratch in rural sending zones. The writer adds that Delaware's TDR program, similar to those in Maryland and in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, would complement its 1991 voluntary conservation easement program, which has put almost 54,000 acres under permanent preservation so far.   1/6/2002

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/

Georgetown Residents Fear Condo Project Will Change Quality of Life

Although the 1997 Sussex Count comprehensive plan favors higher residential densities in towns and designated zones to protect farmland and recreational space, it also provides for low-density single-family residential development in rural areas, and many Lewes-Rehoboth Beach area residents from around a 30-acre Plantation Road site targeted by a developer for a 214-unit condo project oppose the multifamily townhouses, with Plantation Civic Association president Pat Torelli telling the County Planning and Zoning Commission in Georgetown, ''We can have growth, but it must be smart growth.''   12/13/2001

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/archives/

Delaware: Kent County Comprehensive Plan Hindered by Lack of Cooperation

Kent County efforts to complete modification of its 1996 comprehensive plan, which sets land use, housing and transportation goals and must be updated every five years, have been delayed by a lack of cooperation from state agencies and 16 of the area's 20 municipalities. County planning services director Reed Macmillan said the state Department of Agriculture was the only one whose comments "we could use" and Camden, Dover, Milford and Smyrna the only municipalities that signaled their potential land annexation moves. Pointing out that the county needs such information to match the comprehensive map and the zoning map, he said, "There would be no more commercial growth outside of the growth zone," or east of state route 1. Commissioner Ronald D. Smith voiced his dismay with the lack of state interest in the plan update, saying, "What does the state want? We laid it out for them, and they don't respond. I think they are dropping the ball on this issue."   11/15/2001

Resource(s): www.newszap.com

Concerned that beach and service workers in ...

Concerned that beach and service workers in the tourist- dependent part of Sussex County can hardly find affordable housing, state Democratic Senator and builder Robert I. Marshall wants to build 110 two-story townhouses on 11 acres in Dagsboro, near the Atlantic shore, if this 250-year-old town of 437 rezones the land from agricultural-residential to high-density multi-family residential. Successful with several small townhouse projects and restoration of old homes in New Castle County, the senator says not everybody "can afford a $300,000 to $400,000 home at the beach," noting that his townhouses, with biking and walking paths nearby, would be priced from $99,000 to $119,000 and appeal to young and first-time buyers. Mayor Brad Connor says the project, the biggest ever for the town, would set a precedent. "Whatever we do with this one," he points out, "we'll have to do with everything else that comes later on." A public hearing on the project is tentatively scheduled for late October. 09.26.2001   10/1/2001

Resource(s): www.newszap.com

Stepping up the state's environmental and public ...

Stepping up the state's environmental and public health protection efforts, Governor Ruth Ann Miner signed into law the Environmental Right to Know Act, which requires industries to report chemical or other pollutant spills within 12 hours, and a bill that extends similar requirements to drinking-water suppliers. "Every family in Delaware has the right and need to know if and when substances are released into the air or water, or into lands of this state, in a timely manner," said the governor, stressing that residents must have the information to know "what precautions to take for their children or their family." The right-to-know act directs the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to upgrade its data system for accepting electronic spill reports, incorporating them into facility files and posting the information on a Web site. The highest fine, for so-called persistent polluters, is raised from $10,000 a day to $10,000 a day per offense. A new 11-member community council will advise the department on interaction with communities and neighborhood groups. The other law strengthens Department of Health and Social Services oversight over drinking water suppliers, who will also have to issue annual water-quality consumer reports, disclosing any environmental violations and government enforcement actions. 07.07.2001   7/10/2001

Resource(s): www.newszap.com

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