A wave of voices across Sussex County has spoken loudly through letters and editorials, conversations and planning authority hearings. From all accounts, there is a disconnect in how each of us interprets betterment. Perhaps the important question is this: How do we each gauge progress? Webster’s defines progress as: “1. A gradual betterment. 2. To develop a more advanced stage; Improve.”
Given burgeoning numbers of subdivisions cramped onto small plats, escalating traffic and overburdened infrastructure, we need to decide if this exemplifies progress. And further, we need to ask why the rising dissatisfaction is being ignored by the decision-makers.
Clearly, residents and landowners, struggling with the harried scope of approvals and attendant congestion, must wonder if we are better off than we were before. Certainly, mowing down forests and paving over marshlands are clearly at cross-purposes with storm protection and environmental concerns. And what about the loss of the rural tranquility of Sussex County? Where does that fit on the scale of progress? Are we satisfied with a transformation into a place we hardly recognize?
We are at the juncture where our common paths are diverging. There is a small group of those, both elected and appointed, charged with keeping the welfare of the majority in mind when making evaluations on their behalf. Perhaps the decision-makers are unclear as to how they should measure progress. Simply and rapidly approving proposed projects is not a valid definition of beneficial improvement when the short-term consequences are overwhelmed roads, sprawling communities and degradation of protective wetlands and woodlands. Simply dismissing the science of flooding and saltwater intrusion is plainly dangerous in the long term. No longer should we accept the burrowing beneath bureaucratic blather.
The developers will move on, and we will be left with the responsibility for increasing health care facilities and providers, seeing to faster response times and reordering evacuation routes. While none of that is a bad idea, how fast can we keep up the pace? In other words, collectively, we need to ask the big questions. Where’s the oversight? Why rushed decisions?
Sussex County residents understand the rights of farmers and other landowners to benefit from the use or sale of their land. And developers have the right to profit, while providing jobs. We all accept that development is coming. But there are routes to compromise, putting that land to better use. And that must be explored.
A beginning would be to expect well-thought-out decisions. Just maybe the gauge of betterment begins with accountability. Lastly, the county comprehensive plan should be the road map to progress. It was developed with public input and based on Sussex Code. But unless it is reviewed and revised, so that conflict and ambiguity are addressed, the document casts shadows on such rulings. The people of Sussex County must decide which is their path to progress, then make their voices heard with the strength of conviction.
Janice Hurff
Lewes
