Rehoboth Beach’s Planning Commission moves a proposed 33-home subdivision ahead, but not before some debate over process and the repercussions of a new state law.
It’s the latest iteration of concerns over SB 23, a new state law designed to promote affordable housing construction. Critics of the law, including many in local government in Sussex County, contend that the law ties local governments’ hands to put conditions on new subdivisions and cuts the public out of the process by doing away with public hearings.
In the case of the proposed Oceanside Reserve development, the project has been in the planning pipeline for nearly two years, raising questions over whether it falls under the purview of SB 23 which does not say whether it applies retroactively or not.
That uncertainty drove the Planning Commission to meet in a closed executive session to consult with legal counsel. Afterwards, commission member Susan Gay, chairing last Friday’s meeting, proposed a stipulation to allow the normal process - including a public hearing - to unfold.
“Counsel drafted a stipulation to proceed with our standard of review and permit public comment out of an abundance of caution for the rights of the public,” she explained.
Not every member of the Planning Commission agreed with that legal opinion, however. When it came to a vote on whether to proceed under the old process, commission member Nan Hunter, a Georgetown Law professor emerita, chose to abstain.
“My best reading is that SB 23 does apply, not only to us in Rehoboth but to this specific application,” Hunter said.
Planning Commission member Julie Davis said she was opposed to the measure as well.
“I don't believe that the fact that the legislature didn't explicitly provide for retroactivity prevents this particular statute from applying to a pending transaction,” she said.
But other members of the commission disagreed, and the move to continue with the public hearing process passed with the other five members supporting it.
When it came to discussion of Oceanside Reserve itself, the matter in front of the Planning Commission was to decide whether to advance the project out of the preliminary review stage. Rehoboth Beach’s Planning Director Corey Shinko said that, by city staff’s standards, the development was ready to move to the next stage.
"Questions that have brought it back have either been answered or reduced to specific corrections for the revised plans,” he told commission members. “I don't see an unresolved preliminary review issue that calls for another round.”
Members of the Planning Commission agreed.
“There also appears to be consensus in the community that development here is a major improvement to what exists today,” said Commission member Michael Simpson.
Planning Commission members voted unanimously to move the project out of the preliminary approval stage. The next stage is a public hearing, set for October 23.
