Date: February 11, 2007
To: The Cape Gazette
Attn: Letters to the Editor
In Re: Pg 1 article on Sussex County Land Use Plan - 2/9/07 Edition
In July of 06 the Sierra Club's S. DE Group, Citizens Action Foundation and
Sussex Co. League of Women Voters called for an Infrastructure Capacity Study as a precursor to updating the County's Comprehensive Land Use Plan [the Plan]. In September of 06, Sierra's S. DE Group conducted a series of public workshops in Kent, New Castle and Sussex Counties where materials were distributed and the need for uniform statewide Concurrency Laws, Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances [APFOs] and supporting Impact Fees were discussed. It is truly encouraging to see that these proposals which were editorialized in the Cape Gazette in September 06, are now being publicly supported by other organizations. Pursuing an analytical journey into the potential impacts of future growth is, at best, a difficult task. Attempting to do so in the absence of accurate, up to date, comprehensive base line data is, at best, folly. However, publicly promoting APFOs w/o calling for a system of Impact Fees to support same simply provides corporate welfare to subsidize ill-conceived growth by placing the burden of the expense on DE's existing taxpayers. That is neither fiscal prudence nor a good example of fiduciary judgment! The burden of funding new growth should be defrayed by the proposals that generate the increased demands.
During the Sussex County Planning Commission's October meeting the Commissioners discussed their current inability to deny routine subdivision proposals where the consequence would be ill-conceived growth. However, the administrative aspects of planning and zoning reviews are complex. The DE Supreme Court's findings of Eastlake vs. City of Dover circumscribe such decision-making and the scope of flexibility is seriously limited. APFOs would provide the structure necessary for such planning latitude. However, while there has been recent discussions regarding establishing school related impact fees, a comprehensive system embracing all growth related aspects in concert is necessary [e.g. concurrency, comprehensive adequacy standards and supporting impact fees]. Segmenting APFOs will have little success with a growth management system as disjointed as Sussex County's.
One troubling aspect to date is that although workshops are being held and the public is being asked for input one must ask isn't the cart before the horse? During the January 31st workshop the planning consultant stated that the first draft plan would be ready by April. But, when questioned as to the availability of the Plan's transportation module DelDOT's representative responded that the transportation segment would not be available until sometime after the first draft is scheduled to be released for public review. Many aspects with significant impacts on future land use trends remain unresolved, serious issues such as the Route 1 By-pass and the N-S / 113 transportation system. With all of the data for intelligent input not yet available to either the public or the planning consultants how can future land use recommendations be determined? Perhaps that is the reason for DelDot's 11th hour revived flurry of activity but disconnects such as this are the reason Sussex County's land "planning" is dysfunctional.
Sussex County's air quality fails to meet the Federal Clean Air Act's standards and Sussex County does land use planning absent transportation data? With the Inland Bays ranked among the nation's 10 worst polluted embayments why does Sussex County exacerbate the problem by promoting the area as a "development zone?" And, with 90+% of all Sussex County surface waters failing to meet the Federal Clean Water Act's standards why is the need for riparian buffers, wetlands protection and pollution and sediment control enforcement during the development process minimized? The foregoing brings to mind Albert Einstein's statement ...
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created
them."
Richard Anthony, Chairman
Southern Delaware Group - Sierra Club