Sussex County Council continues reviewing how the county will become compliant with new state laws governing development.
House Bill 450 and Senate Bill 23 change the usual process of some Sussex County meetings, namely eliminating the need for a public hearing for new subdivisions in the county - as long as they meet current zoning requirements.
County Administrator Todd Lawson says the laws also affect their comprehensive plan, as new procedures need to be developed for applications in a way that complies with state rules.
One of those procedures is how the county will handle public comments on subdivisions.
“Then of course the new rule that eliminates public comment, except for written comments. We now have to come up with a procedure on how to receive those written comments, when to receive them, and how to analyze them. If they are to be used for the commission's review”. he said.
Critique of the county’s current analysis method is not unheard of, public comments have argued that the County labeled written comments as “neutral” when they were actually opposed to a given application.
Changes will only be applicable to County owned land, not city owned, but municipalities do coordinate with the County from time to time to enact similar rules.
Sussex County Assistant Attorney Vince Robertson says the new laws might encourage towns and municipalities in Sussex to coordinate on new procedures too.
“When we’ve had those conversations with the towns- you know we’re working on our comp plan, [and] they may be at some other stage of their comp plan in their ten-year window so they are maybe not as invested at that time [but], everybody is dealing SB23 and HB450 now. I think there will be a higher level of coordination with the towns.” he said.
Other changes are being explored for potential inclusion at the same time as new application procedure. which all fall under Chapter 99, Objective Standards of the Sussex County code.
Some requirements being considered for future subdivisions include things like pedestrian connectivity, a DelDOT MOU, standardized construction times, and school bus stops with pull offs, along with nine others that could make it into county code.
Lawson says that an ordinance for necessary changes is expected to be presented for Council vote by the end of the year.
