Growth in Milford - at least among residential units - may be slowing down considerably.
That was city Planning Director Rob Pierce’s message at a Planning Commission meeting earlier this month. A building boom, powered by several large developments approved in recent years, seems to be slowing down. Pierce says after issuing 270 permits in 2023 and 235 last year, this year’s numbers are significantly lower.
“Through the end of October, we were at around 131 units this year, so we're down considerably from last year in terms of new construction permits," he said.
At a meeting in November, City Council heard presentations from Sussex County Habitat for Humanity and the Delaware State Housing Authority on the area’s need for more affordable housing.
Pierce told planning commissioners the city has thousands of units permitted and approved.
“As of October, we have 3,436 units that are approved to be constructed," he said. "There's about 476 that are coming through the review process, which puts us at around 3,900.”
But he warned not to expect those new units anytime soon, because in some cases, developers have not yet begun work on the underlying infrastructure.
“A lot of them don't have infrastructure in the ground yet because the developers haven't made that investment to move on to those phases of their development plans," Pierce said.
Meanwhile, the city has around 648 acres of land that could be developed, adding up to a possible 3,300 more housing units, according to Pierce.
