Clark: Battle over rezoning highlights changes needed in Sussex
Charles C. “Little Owl” Clark IV was an assistant chief of the Nanticoke Indian Tribe for more than a decade. He helps manage his family’s ancestral lands along the Indian River in Sussex County.
By Charles C. “Little Owl” Clark IV
Every now and then, the universe gives us human beings an opportunity to shine like the stars from which we came. In 2022, that opportunity came to members of the Riverdale Park & Oak Orchard riverside communities, situated on the Northern shores of the Indian River near Millsboro, DE. On June 22, 2023, we did shine after successfully defeating a proposed development targeted for environmentally sensitive lands within our communities, an area which is slightly over just 50 acres of woodlands and tidal wetlands, and the combined homelands of countless varieties of wildlife. As anyone can tell you, accomplishing that is no small feat.
Our battle against this development — called Stillwater Harbor — began more than a year earlier, when we learned a Maryland-based developer had targeted one of the last significant remaining sections of wooded land in the Riverdale Park-Oak Orchard area for a 123-unit housing development.
In typical fashion, the developer had plans to remove the vast majority of trees there and alter the land in other ways that would render it significantly less beneficial in an environmental sense, as well as further overburden the narrow country roadways woven throughout the communities. This coastal area is already prone to routine flooding, which was just one of several expressed reasons of opposition local residents brought to the county Planning & Zoning Commission’s attention in their hopes of having this project denied. The commission agreed with the residents’ opposition, ultimately denying the developer’s application June 22.
However, apparently, the developer is now filing an appeal against that decision made by the county P&Z Commission, now bringing it before the Sussex County Council for reconsideration. At this point, no official announcement about their appeal has been made by the county, and no hearing date for the appeal has been scheduled either. Residents now await the latest twist in this saga.
When news hit our area that yet another proposed development was being planned to come our way — one that would drastically and negatively impact our daily lives and destroy some of the greatest but fast-waning expressions of Mother Earth’s beauty in this part of Sussex County — I was joined by countless others in saying, “No. No more. Enough is enough.”
Being a Native American with very deep roots here, I am just about as “local” as a person can get. The American Indians’ love for their lands is legendary. However, that certainly does not mean that I nor any other member of the local Nanticoke Indian Tribe has the monopoly on loving and caring for the tidewater region of eastern Sussex County. Keeping my ear to the ground as I always do, I understand that many others who relocated to Sussex County over time also strongly share our heartfelt feelings toward the charms of this specific geographic region and our love for these lands.
And that particular fact instantly jumped out to me, just like a developer in a baby blue, pinstripe suit standing in the middle of a cornfield in the summer sun.
Development and overdevelopment
This realization bolstered my immediate conclusion that, for us to win this battle to protect our beloved homelands, “thinking outside of the box” was the imperative, combined with a multipronged attack. That, and a whole lot of praying, too, could win the day, despite the overwhelmingly strong odds against any such success.
Sussex County’s reputation for welcoming development — and overdevelopment, too — pushes far beyond the invisible lines identifying its boundaries. Why county officials chose decades ago not to follow the many well-thought-out land use plan suggestions it received — combined with pleas from county citizens for sober thinking by county officials when navigating its way into its future development — has several commonly discussed reasons.
When it comes to explaining the admittedly NASCAR pace of Sussex County development, I have heard it all: conflicts of interest from county officials at all levels; illicit monetary kickbacks to those same officials; payoffs, corruption, etc., by Sussex County officials and employees; and so on. Well, in my opinion, such accusations remain unfounded and unproven, and are simply easy, knee-jerk answers to some very complicated and interwoven facts, circumstances and situations. Moreover, the only one of the abovementioned “reasons” that may hold some water is the mention of “conflicts of interest from county officials at all levels” — and even that one could be reasonably explained and understood when considered with an open and unbiased mind.
This particular one goes: “All county officials, from the Sussex County Council members to the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission members, make their living off of tourism and people; they make even more money when there are more residents in the county.”
To which I say, “Well, who among us living here in Sussex County does not?”
Regardless of whatever job or career you happen to have in Sussex County, it’s glaringly apparent that your income, too, is based upon the population in the area. From agriculture to doctor’s and attorney’s offices to restaurants, more people equal greater potential for greater income to each of us. That’s a fact.
Another fact is that county government officials at all levels also must have jobs and careers, so they, too, can afford to live here. Does that mean that certain individuals in a pool that size will directly benefit from higher population figures swelling the county? Of course it does. But that, in and of itself, is neither surprising, criminal, illegal or illicit. And it also is not out of the norm, either.
Benefitting from our connections
Think about it. Hasn’t your life also been tremendously impacted by who you know and who knows you? By your family and friend connections? By your prior career and employment history? By those things that interest and personally benefit you? Hasn’t the goal of your entire life also been to utilize everything contained in your life for your self-betterment and for what’s best for you and your family?
There are many things in life that pop up and cloud our perceptions and judgments. To me, hypocrisy is at the top of that ignominious list. “Walk a mile in another person’s moccasins before commenting on the path they left behind,” my grandfather taught me. He was correct.
How surprised should we be that members of official county bodies dealing with land and land management matters have backgrounds and interests in real estate? We should be no more surprised about things such as that than we are when we learn that members of agriculture-related commissions, advisory boards and panels have backgrounds in farming.
Alleged corruption among Sussex County officials is not what is causing our county development problems, and that was not what the Riverdale Park and Oak Orchard communities were facing in our battle to stop Stillwater Harbor, a proposed 123-home development that was to have been squeezed onto around 50 acres of beautiful woodlands and marshlands pulsating with life.
No, our problems are far greater than that. And these problems must be addressed if Sussex County is to discover other, more far-reaching methods of securing brighter futures for the land and the people living on it, instead of simply selling both up the river.
We need jobs, new jobs, the kind that offer tomorrow’s generation reasons and opportunities to want to live and work here, with an income that affords them a decent lifestyle. We need homes not targeted at only out-of-state money but at rates where the average Delawarean can have a chance of owning an affordable home here, too. We need innovation and younger and more modern thinking; we need more input from people who have lived here for generations and have insights that should be tapped into.
Folks, we need change here in Sussex County, and we need it now.
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson wrote more than once that, for government to remain relevant and responsive to its citizens, there must be a revolution every generation, every 20 years. By my calendar, we are long overdue.
I know I speak for every “Save Oak Orchard” committee member in thanking everyone who took the time to help us secure this notable and important victory. It is a victory for us, a victory for your great-grandchildren and, most important of all, a victory for our Mother Earth. Congratulations to each and every one of you.
Every word I stated throughout this battle had to have true and pure strength — and an iron will — behind them if we were to be victorious in helping to save the homeland we love. We had that strength; we had that iron will, all because of you, the people in our riverside communities. You were the source of both necessary forces. And, for that, I personally thank every one of you.
No one man wins a battle. Every warrior fighting side by side is equal. I am humbled by the trust and faith shown to me in this endeavor. I will never forget it.
