The Rehoboth Beach mixed-use task force recently began its work.
The 14-person group met in February and will meet for two hours monthly going forward.
The zoning ordinances in Rehoboth Beach don’t clearly say that mixed-use projects are allowed, even though they exist within the city.
Rehoboth’s planning and community development director Mary Ellen Gray, who is on the task force, said the city put the group together to prepare and propose an ordinance for the city commissioners that encourages high-quality design and workforce housing.
“If we have folks who are working here and living here, that encourages all sorts of other economic activity as well as decreasing the use of vehicles to hit our community. So that would promote pedestrian and bicycle travel and just provide more of a year round use of our community,” Gray said.
The task force is currently researching developer incentives to encourage mixed-use projects in the city. That could be through regulatory means like parking incentives and density bonuses.
Gray said the city is known as a summer destination, but she wants to promote it as a great place to live all year.
“Due to the housing prices, a lot of people are priced out of the market. But by promoting this additional use, we're hoping to create a niche that we could have more year round living. We can broaden that use to have other additional folks live in our community.”
The task force will meet through the end of this year, with its next meeting on March 26. Gray hopes the ordinance will be adopted by the Board of Commissioners by the end of the year.
