Millsboro officials say they have more questions than answers about a pair of new laws designed to promote affordable housing.
The town’s Assistant Manager, Ashleigh Sander, and Councilman Marty Presley attended a meeting with local and state officials last week concerning the implementation of SB 23 and HB 450. Those two laws work in tandem to streamline the construction of new housing in the state, with a goal of creating more affordable housing.
But local officials across the First State have generally been sour on the new measures, expressing concerns that the laws tie the hands of local governments to control development and do away with public hearings.
Speaking to his colleagues on Monday, Presley laid out his frustrations with the process of rolling out guidelines for counties, cities, and towns.
“We were told with the governor's dog and pony show last week that we are to abide by this immediately,” Presley said. “We are supposed to conduct our business as if this is in full force of the law right now, but they can't tell us how to do that.”
One large unanswered question is how Area Median Income, or AMI, will be calculated. That is an important number for local governments as they adapt their local laws to comply with the new state laws.
“We can't even formulate any plans on how to abide by this without knowing that base number, and we don't have it,” he said.
One challenge facing towns like Millsboro is the need to rewrite their laws to comply with SB 23 and HB 450, and Presley said that is going to be a heavy lift with a short timeline.
“Our zoning regulations are going to have to be massively changed and they're going to have to be changed by June, so we really need to get to work on that,” Presley said. “Yet we don't know what they're asking us to do.”
Complicating matters, he added, is that the Delaware State Housing Authority, the primary regulator, may not begin working on regulations of its own until January.
Town Solicitor Mary Schrider-Fox agreed that the town needs to adapt and rewrite its code, noting that currently, local laws are in conflict with the new state laws. For example, while Millsboro’s code requires a public hearing for most new subdivisions, the state law prohibits public comment on projects unless it is submitted in writing.
“The town needs to figure out what its new process is going to be, because the current process you have, pretty much every other jurisdiction I'm aware of, incorporates the public hearings,” she told council members.
Town Manager Jamie Burk said officials across the state should be prepared for sharp criticism over doing away with public hearings.
“When we see people come out for public hearings, that's always been the reason why, so we can get the public to comment on it,” Burk said. “When they realize that that's been taken away from them with this bill, I think there's going to be definitely some pushback.”
Presley suggested that, despite the short timeline to generate new local laws, the town hold off, at least for a few months, because state lawmakers may find themselves rewriting SB 23, HB 450, or both, after hearing complaints from local governments.
“We could spin our wheels, trying to get this preliminary work done. With all the blowback they've got, they could come in in January and change all this stuff on us again, And so all the work we've done between now and January will be for naught,” he said.
Presley reiterated a call he has made before, including at a meeting last month, for the town to consider a moratorium on new residential developments. That is a move Sussex County has made, and one under consideration by Lewes as well.
Schrider-Fox, the town’s solicitor, said that Millsboro’s current policy amounts to a moratorium in all but name.
“An application comes in, you can say thank you, and it's going to sit there until we can figure out the new process and how to process it,” she explained. “If there's a complaint on the part of the developer or the applicant, then that's when I get to talk to their legal counsel.”
But, those potential legal complaints were part of the reason Presley was urging a possible moratorium.
“I think it's a much cleaner look and would be doing the developers a favor by announcing a moratorium until we get some certainty on this,” he said.
Council members could consider a possible moratorium at its November 2 meeting.
