Stoehr: Is Sussex County becoming the new Long Island?

I grew up on Long Island, New York, in Nassau County, home of Levittown, the original “suburbia.”

Before that, she was mostly farmland and known for potatoes, Long Island ducklings, bluepoint oysters and littleneck clams. Sound familiar?

Sussex was like that when we first discovered her. In many ways, when we settled in two years ago, she was even better.

Today, Long Island is a suburban sprawl of houses in monotonous hamlets, diced up and connected by commercial highways (like Del. 1?) and traffic. The biggest employer is government, mainly school districts. Real estate taxes average well over $10,000, and the sales tax is near 9%. Are we heading there?

Cool Spring Crossing will sure help, if that’s what we want. Two thousand homes on about 1 square mile will hold 5,000 residents, at an estimated 2.5 occupants per dwelling, on U.S. 9, between Lewes and Georgetown.

As a comparison, Lewes has 3,741 residents (2024 estimate) on 4.25 square miles. Georgetown has a population of 8,130 on 5 square miles. The coming Northstar development, near Vineyards, will add over 2,000 more residents.

Cool Spring will also have over 10 acres of commercial space under roof, plus parking, sidewalks, etc.

These new residents will drive (the Department of Transportation says traffic will triple on U.S. 9), and their kids will attend schools at a 2024 cost of $19,000 per year apiece.

It is true that development brings in a lot of transfer taxes, which would keep taxes low for now. Development also adds jobs, at least during construction, some of which go to locals.

The money is tempting, but new money is constantly needed to pay off the obligations brought on by the deals that went before.

That can only end badly.

Call or write your representatives and the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission.

Pete Stoehr

Lewes

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