Members of Lewes’s Planning Commission make the case for a moratorium on major subdivision development to members of the City Council, as the president of the Home Builders Association of Delaware threatens legal action.
The idea of a moratorium has been in front of council members for several weeks after planning commission members voted unanimously in August to recommend it as a response to two new state laws, SB 23 and HB 450. Those measures seek to make it easier to build housing developments, but critics - many in local government - have criticized the new laws, saying they remove the ability of local governments to place conditions on new subdivisions and do away with the public hearing process.
In Lewes, planning commission members are tying the need for a moratorium to the city’s comprehensive plan, currently in development. Planning Commission Vice-Chair Kevin Keane told council members at a work session last week that the city’s comp plan, currently in development, is essentially the only tool for city officials to control housing development. And, he added, with public hearings no longer allowed under the new laws, the public input portion of the comp plan process is more important than ever.
“The bottom line is the public hearing process in the comp plan is much more important than it used to be in the past, because that is the only avenue the public is going to have to comment,” he said.
He also said there was some urgency to the matter, since SB 23 and HB 450 are in effect now.
“Right now, under SB 23, because it's imposed immediately, if a developer were to come in, say, between now and the time the comp plan is updated, the standards that would be utilized are the ones in the existing comp plan, which don't meet the specificity that we need when it comes to these development proposals,” Keane said.
Planning Commission Chair Rich Innes also signed on to the moratorium recommendation, noting that Sussex County is doing something similar, in order to reconcile the city’s code with the requirements of the new state laws. That is a problem also facing Lewes.
“We are following the county to some extent here, in fact to a great extent, in that they are taking a very similar approach to putting a moratorium until they can get their procedures in place in order to catch up,” he said.
But, Jon Horner, president of the Home Builders Association of Delaware, said that the idea of massive subdivisions coming to Lewes is not likely.
“Not a single project in the last 10 years of Lewes would have been in any way impacted by Senate Bill 23,” he said. “I want to make that crystal clear.”
He also spoke to concerns from some council members about potential legal challenges to the moratorium.
“I find it really hard to say you have a justification when you look back, not been a single project in 10 years, there's very little land in the city of Lewes eligible even to do a major subdivision, let alone that's actually in play, and in a time where the city has already been under scrutiny for legal fees, I can tell you the Home Builders Association will absolutely challenge this moratorium,” Horner said.
City council is likely to take up the moratorium idea again at their November meeting, although they could schedule a special meeting. Public comment on the moratorium proposal remains open until noon on October 16.
