A Sussex County councilmember’s calls for a building moratorium faces some backlash at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Councilmember Matt Lloyd started discussions on introducing a building moratorium at an earlier meeting. That led to Tuesday’s agenda including time for “Discussion related to development initiatives.”
After a lengthy and largely unapproving public comment session, Lloyd said he will have county legal counsel draft a targeted moratorium that he plans to introduce. That likely won’t be for another three months, he said.
Lloyd said the moratorium he mentioned during last week’s meeting would not put a comprehensive ban in place.
“What I mentioned was a moratorium on accepting applications on a specific type of development in AR-1 lands, five or more homes, major subdivisions for a period of 12 months.”
AR-1 lots are one type of agricultural residential district in Sussex County.
Several commenters voiced concern for the local economy, including Ed Cappadonna from Georgetown.
“We believe that this approach would have significant unintended consequences, threatening local jobs and businesses and further [exacerbating] our state's workforce housing crisis. A moratorium would likely lead to a sharp decline in local businesses, new construction and development opportunities.”
Councilmember Steve McCarron added his voice to that opposition.
“We're discussing a disturbingly vague measure with unknown effects that is a last resort attempt or is used as a tool to control a new unknown… I'm not naive enough to think I understand the full impact of presenting much less enacting a moratorium without first exhausting my options as a council member. What is needed is a heavy dose of common sense.”
Council Vice President John Rieley said a moratorium is an aggressive move.
“I don't want to tie up our legal staff and our administrative staff in something it's probably a foregone conclusion that we're not going to support at the end of the day,” said Rieley.
Lloyd said minute changes haven’t been working.
“I hope everyone here can appreciate where I'm coming from. I know the thousands of voters in my district did, so I feel as if I'm walking on very thick ice. So in summary, we're not talking about the immediate adoption of a moratorium. I'm simply entertaining the points around the discussion,” said Lloyd.
Lloyd said he hopes there’s as large of a turnout at future meetings.
“I personally took a lot of notes that I will take back, digest and work into my equation,” Lloyd said.
