It’s time to rethink land-use strategies

Delaware faces several crises: a shortage of affordable housing, multiple poor health outcomes, loss of environmental resilience and increasing pollution. Though none have simple causes or solutions, the problems are related, and land-use and transportation decisions over the decades have made them worse.

Decades of piecemeal land-use decisions have resulted in sprawling development and almost total dependence on personal motor vehicles. Those decisions have compromised our health, created a shortage of affordable housing, gobbled up open space and farmland, escalated the public costs of infrastructure and services, driven climate change and eroded the sense of place that makes strong communities. 

Consider Delaware’s elevated incidences of obesity, diabetes and heart disease due partly to our sedentary lifestyle, the increase in pediatric asthma due partly to local air pollution, and the associated high costs of healthcare. 

Consider increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from traffic, the high cost of transportation as a percentage of household income, the lack of housing variety putting housing out of reach for too many Delawareans.

Sprawl has also compounded the mobility and housing challenges faced by our significant older population, including the ability to age in place, affecting healthcare costs for state Medicaid and retiree programs and services.

The loss of open space has greatly diminished the land’s ability to absorb stormwater, increasing flooding during major storms and extreme high tides, compromising our climate resilience and increasing the need for expensive infrastructure improvements.

All these conditions hit our most vulnerable neighbors hardest. Their health is worse than the population overall, flooding of their neighborhoods is routine and more severe, their housing options more limited, and they are cut off from valuable resources and economic opportunities.

There is a simple solution: Address the challenges together by reforming land-use strategies to incentivize development where it makes sense and discourage development where it doesn’t. 

The time has come. In Delaware, 60 government entities make land-use decisions under a structure designed when our state was 60% less populated and confronted fewer critical challenges. There is little coordination among those entities and no penalties for deviating from state planning guidance or county comprehensive plans.

New state and county administrations have an opportunity to utilize smart land use, one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools, to address these challenges. 

Rethinking Delaware, an informal coalition of former state officials and nonprofit organizations, believes all levels of government, led by the state, should incentivize development of compact, mixed-use, walkable, transit-supportive communities as a central part of the state’s housing, transportation, health, environmental and climate priorities. Our recommendations include:

• Review and amend all state, county, and local land-use and infrastructure policies and funding for transportation, schools, and water and sewer systems that impede development of compact, walkable communities
• In support of more compact development patterns, refocus transportation investment to accommodate walking, biking and new transit services
• Reorient comprehensive plans and zoning laws to prioritize mixed-use neighborhoods with places to live, work, shop, learn, and play while increasing the supply and diversity of housing and transportation options
• Establish state and/or county task forces to develop innovative proposals for specific areas to address the collective challenges of housing and transportation costs, our changing demographics and health challenges, and climate-related threats, all in ways that incorporate a sustainable economic strategy for the future.

Imagine: Walking the kids to school or bus stop, then heading to the coffee shop, the co-op workspace or transit stop. All right near the grocer, pharmacy and cleaners. On the weekends, enjoy the beautiful green trails around the neighborhood – the same trails others use to cycle to work. Walk or bike to the park and ball fields, the farm stand, and restaurant night.

The result: more physical activity that lowers health risks, easing the cost of healthcare; better air and fewer respiratory ailments, also easing healthcare costs; less of your valuable time spent in traffic; lower transportation costs (which translates to more discretionary spending for our households); more necessities readily available to seniors; stronger communities and a more resilient environment.

That’s a better Delaware for all. If you agree, reach out to your town council, county council, state legislators and the governor-elect to urge action. Reach us at rethinkingdelaware@gmail.com.