Sussex County Planning & Zoning commissioners recently voted on an initiative that seemingly addressed the issue of affordable workforce housing. It passed with a vote of 3-2, my vote being one of the two no votes.
We can do better.
Sussex County, Delaware, has a need for housing that lower- to middle-income individuals and families can afford. This is not in question. Sussex County Council is debating an ordinance to incentivize the development of “affordable housing.” This ordinance supports the development of apartment buildings, not single-family homes.
As proposed today, it will provide very few affordable dwelling units. It will, however, provide a profit windfall for developers.
The affordable-housing crisis is a supply issue. There simply isn’t a supply of moderately priced housing in Sussex County. This has the greatest negative impact on gainfully employed, hard-working, middle-class citizens. I believe everyone should have the opportunity to find quality and affordable housing in Sussex County.
If we are not careful, the government will end up being part of the problem, rather than the catalyst for the solution. Poor planning by the Sussex County government has played a role in creating the issues we are facing today. Sussex County has promoted sprawl into our agricultural lands and on backcountry roads that can’t handle the traffic. This practice needs to stop. Development should occur on major roads, near population centers and close to services and places of employment.
Sussex County hired a consultant to perform a study called the Housing Opportunities and Market Evaluation (HOME) report. The HOME report stated: “The restrictive land use and zoning code in Sussex County, born out of efforts to reduce traffic congestion, promote environmental stewardship, preserve the County’s agricultural landscape, and/or reduce strain on infrastructure, is setting rules and regulations that place limits on the number and type of housing units that can be built in areas of the County that have been designated for growth.”
It continued, “While well-intentioned, the zoning code is inadvertently placing upward pressure on housing prices and exacerbating the same policies the restrictions are working to address. Low-density, single-use developments increase traffic congestion, lengthy commutes to work, costs of installing new infrastructure, and the degradation of even more land from sprawling development.”
Lack of undeveloped inventory in all residential districts except AR, overly restrictive bulk standards and an arbitrary land-use decision-making process have left middle class and financially disadvantaged citizens out in the cold. To quote President Ronald Reagan, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
It is a government-caused problem that has grown over time into a crisis. According to the 2019 final HOME report, approximately 50% of our workforce can only afford a home that costs $250,000 or less. As of today, there aren’t many of those to be found.
The county recognized affordable housing was an issue in 2008. This effort failed miserably. It took 10 years to recognize the failure. Even after the 2018 comprehensive plan review highlighted the growing crisis, it has taken the county four years to move forward with a partial solution that doesn’t offer a fee simple-purchase option.
It appears to me that this ordinance was drafted for public relations purposes rather than to address the multiple issues clearly identified in the HOME report.
I commend the Planning & Zoning Commission for their work to improve the ordinance. We can do better.
Keller Hopkins
Georgetown
Editor’s note: Keller Hopkins is a candidate for Sussex County Council.
