In the current debates over rezoning requests from developers, one issue is consistently overlooked: What are the overriding principles that should guide Sussex County Council as it considers zoning changes?
The answers lie in the laws that spell out the fundamental principles that should guide County Council’s zoning decisions. As we know from everyday experience, many are not being met (for example, Delaware Code’s Title 9, Section 6904 and parallel provisions of County Code’s Section 115-3).
Zoning decisions “shall be designated and adopted for the purpose of promoting, in accordance with the present and future needs, the health, safety, morals, convenience, order, prosperity and general welfare of the inhabitants of Sussex County, Delaware, including, amongst other things, the lessening of congestion in the streets or roads, … securing safety from fire, flood, and other dangers, providing adequate light and air, preventing on the one hand excessive concentration of population and on the other hand excessive and wasteful scattering of population or settlement, promoting such distribution of population and such classification of land uses and distribution of land development and utilization as will tend to facilitate and provide adequate provisions for public requirements, transportation, water flowage, water supply, water and air pollution abatement, drainage, sanitation, educational opportunities, recreation, soil fertility, food supply, protection of the tax base (and) securing economy in governmental expenditures, fostering the State’s agricultural and other industries, and the protection of both urban and nonurban development.”
In addition, Delaware law requires Sussex County to consider the cumulative impact of rezoning applications and “to deal effectively with future problems that may result from use and development of land within” the county (Quality of Life Act, found in Title 9, Section 6951 of Delaware Code).
Has Sussex truly dealt with the cumulative impact of all pending, planned or expected rezoning applications? Is there an effort to stop or mitigate problems before they occur? The answers are obvious every day, in congested roads, delayed medical appointments, overworked emergency services, filled classrooms, escalating problems with flooding and the disappearance of agricultural lands.
In the rush to develop Sussex County, we are failing to give full consideration to the overriding purposes of our zoning laws. It is time to pause and consider the future of Sussex County.
Jack Young
Rehoboth Beach
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
