Why Should Delaware Care?
Residents in Sussex County have sounded the alarm on overdevelopment in recent years, but new houses kept coming. Now, residents elected three new County Council members who ran their campaigns on the promise to slow the pace of development.
Politics are all local – at least most of the decisions made impacting day-to-day life. And for residents in Sussex County, this election in many ways was a referendum on development that’s boomed since the pandemic.
And when the results came in, both western and eastern Sussex County residents voted out incumbents and elected three new County Council members who aim to pump the brakes on the county’s exploding real estate scene.
Time will tell if those council members hold true to their campaign promises, but on its face, Sussex County Council has a new majority voting bloc on the five-member council looking to reimagine land use in southern Delaware.
A wave of change
In the general election, only one race was contested. Local land preservation advocate Jane Gruenebaum unseated Councilman Mark Schaeffer, who represented Sussex’s beach communities for the last four years.
The win by Gruenebaum restored the District 3 seat to Democratic control for the first time in eight years, and broke the countywide control of council seats by Republicans.
She is a co-founder and former president of the Sussex Preservation Coalition, a local advocacy group that’s pushed hard against development in recent years.
Running largely on a campaign against the quickening development of Sussex County, Gruenebaum went on to win the election by nearly 10 percentage points, with a margin of more than 3,500 votes.
But change was not limited to the general election.
The September Republican primary election saw two newcomers overwhelmingly defeat incumbent council members before they could make it to a general election. They would ride into the general election unopposed.
Matt Lloyd, a U.S. Air Force special forces veteran, beat out longtime councilman Michael Vincent, who first won the seat in 2008, by nearly 20 percentage points. Lloyd will now represent the first district in Sussex, which encompasses Laurel and Seaford.
Cynthia Green, who was elected to represent the Milton, Milford and Bridgeville area in 2020, also lost her seat in the primary. Steve McCarron, a longtime volunteer fireman and local business owner, won the race by nearly 17 percentage points.
All three of the new council members based their campaigns on land use decisions made by previous council members, and the massive development spike in recent years.
The state has added more than 25,000 homes in the state planning pipeline since 2021. Nearly 14,000 of those homes are to be considered by Sussex County Council, if they haven’t already.
And for Sussex’s new council members, it’s something they want to get under control.
What do the winners say they will do?
Spotlight Delaware spoke with Gruenebaum and McCarron about their views on development and what to expect from a new county council. Lloyd did not respond to requests for comment.
McCarron said he’s not opposed to growth, but would like to see it done where the surrounding infrastructure can meet the needs of a new community. A key piece of infrastructure that he discussed, and a hot-button topic in recent county land use discussions, was road capacity.
He said there isn’t a “silver bullet” to solving the county’s land use issues, but the results of the election signaled a desire for change.
“When you see three members replaced, it’s time to start having in-depth conversations,” McCarron said.
Another land use priority he discussed was the lack of affordable housing in Sussex County, citing his experience as a small business owner. As part of that, he would like to see the discussion around affordable housing shift from rental units to ownership options.
Gruenebaum centered much of her campaign around addressing the county’s development practices, and preserving forested areas. Sussex County has seen an increasing amount of housing sprawl in recent years, particularly off the Route 1 corridor as homebuilders seek to meet demand of retirees looking for Delaware’s low tax climate and proximity to beaches.
Tweaking different zoning ordinances is what Gruenebaum believes will slow some of the development down and allow for “smart growth.”
She echoed the same sentiment as McCarron, where she would like to see infrastructure growth keep pace with development.
“The way to tackle that is through changes in the zoning, through changes in permitting, so that you don’t issue permits before the infrastructure is in place to handle development,” Gruenebaum said.
What can they actually do about development?
Overall, council members are legally limited in their ability to stop developments coming to the county.
Developments in areas zoned for residential or commercial development have very little to stand in their way of breaking ground. And even those that require a rezoning have precedent on their side now that development has ramped up around the county.
Simply shutting down a project because the county council or public isn’t in favor of it runs the risk of a lawsuit.
However, the county council can revisit allowable uses in zoning districts, place more onerous requirements for developers to fund necessary transportation needs for their projects and even encourage more public participation in public hearings.
The Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission, a five-member advisory board appointed by each district’s council member, can also seek to be a part of reforming the county’s strategy on development and enforce stricter measures of review on projects.
Commission members serve three-year terms, however, one appointee is up for reappointment in 2025. But in theory, if members of the new county council wished to see new rank-and-file at the commission level, they could install three new members before the end of their terms.
What’s more likely to happen is that council members work to change some of the county’s ordinances to give the commission more wiggle room to hold off projects before they see full council votes.
The council members will take their seats on Jan. 2, 2025, and serve four-year terms.
Get involved
Interested in learning more about land use in Delaware? Join Spotlight Delaware in Georgetown on Dec. 2 for our “Navigating Growth” panel. You’ll hear from land use experts, including government officials, developers, planners and community advocates on how Delaware can meet the demands of rapid expansion.
Sussex County Council meets every Tuesday, with its next meeting scheduled for 12:30 p.m. today. Find the agenda here.
The post Sussex has a new county council – what it means for development appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.