Sussex County plans to act “immediately” on land use reform group recommendations they deemed “low-hanging fruit” during a workshop earlier this year.
Those specific items are ones council believes could be implemented quickly, since they have comparatively less total impact on county code.
Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson said the county administration "intend to seek [council] input on drafting ordinances immediately for the manageable recommendations including the SCRP program, master plan zoning, and improving the subdivision code known as 99-9C”
Amendments to S-C-R-P, or the Sussex County Rental Program will seek to make projects looking to build affordable rental buildings more feasible for developers.
A Master Plan Zoning ordinance would aim to strike a balance between the flexibility large scale developers already have with new guidance that requires them to demonstrate consistency with the County’s wider Comprehensive Plan.
The County is also looking to further eliminate language deemed “too vague” from sub-division development rules.
Working group members were hopeful the council would act swiftly on their recommendations where possible, and urged they pursue the entire package. They argue implementing the recommendations “piece-meal” would undermine the package's efficacy.
The county plans to have initial ordinance proposals in place by next year, when they also select an advising firm on the next comprehensive plan update.
That update, originally scheduled to begin in the latter half of 2026, will instead begin immediately.
"It was clear from the discussion on October 14th that the council does not want to wait until the latter part of 2026 into '27 to begin the comprehensive land use plan update. Therefore, we are going to start the comp plan update process immediately," said Lawson.
The county will first develop a scope of work, which will be used to advertise a request for proposal to any qualified advising firms.
Changes to the county's comp plan are necessary to implement some of the land use reforms more impactful recommendations.
