By Glenn Rolfe

DAGSBORO — It’s exploratory, very preliminary and, at this point, just up for discussion.

But if talk leads to action, Dagsboro could be in line for substantial residential development — and possible annexation.

At their virtual meeting Monday, the town’s mayor and council received a presentation from Kyle Gulbronson, the town’s AECOM consultant, on a potential development that could bring 500 or more single-family homes and town houses to Dagsboro and bordering Sussex County land.

Mr. Gulbronson’s presentation stemmed from a June 9 meeting with Greg Tobias of Ocean Atlantic Companies and Zac Crouch of Davis, Bowen & Friedel on the Riverview Associates/Schell Brothers proposal.

The project is an old initiative, probably originally entertained about 10 years ago, Mr. Gulbronson said.

“They are thinking about revamping it. Nothing is set in stone yet. They are just really doing their due diligence to see what it is going to cost, how many units they can get — that kind of thing,” he said. “They are developing a conceptual plan.”

Dagsboro Town Administrator Cindi Brought explained further.

“They want to see whether it is feasible or not feasible,” said Ms. Brought, who also attended the June 9 meeting, along with Dagsboro Town Solicitor Greg Morris.

The property in question is the lands of General’s Green, bordering Clayton Street, and it incorporates Riverview Associates’ land to the north along Del. 20, Mr. Gulbronson said. The property is near the Cea-Dag Court development, off Clayton Street.

The project would include more than 500 homes, both single-family and town houses. The entire property encompasses 280.4 acres, including 118 acres within the town of Dagsboro.

“The remainder of the property is in the county. They are interested in annexation of the county properties into the town of Dagsboro,” said Mr. Gulbronson. “The way the plan is laid out — of course, this is very conceptual and could change — they are looking (at) 296 units in the town of Dagsboro and 278 units in the county, both a mix of single-family and town homes.”

Town Councilman William Chandler III wanted to know more about the annexation.

“Why is annexation necessarily important to them?” he asked.

Mr. Gulbronson responded, “It sounded like their main reason for annexation is that they wanted to be part of the Dagsboro community and also the fact that the approval process at the county is taking so long now.”

Overall, plans could include a clubhouse, pool, possibly a train museum and other amenities that incorporate the agricultural heritage of the area. Community gardens also are a possibility, Mr. Gulbronson said.

“They said if they do move forward, they will do development in a phased approach,” he added. “And they said, for a lot of reasons, it would make more sense for them to start the phase in the town of Dagsboro. There isn’t an annexation requirement at that point, the zoning is in place, and the utilities all come in off Clayton Street. They said if they would move forward, that would be the first, most logical phase of the project.”

According to Mr. Gulbronson, the potential developers “said they had 90 days to make the decision whether to move forward or not, based on what their findings (are) from the county and the town.”

Ms. Brought added, “I think, the way he talked, we’re going to know within another month if they are going to move forward or not.”

Another project, Highlands at Pepper Creek, which borders the prospective Riverview development, also is being brought back.

“(The developers) were looking to do a mixed town house/single-family homes (community),” Mr. Gulbronson said. “But after they went back in and did another wetland investigation, they found out there is more wetlands on the site as previously thought. So they are going to come back with a smaller number in all single-family homes.”