Planners reject unwanted precedent in Lewes area

Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended denial of a zoning change for 124 acres off Mulberry Knoll Road, near the new Love Creek Elementary School.

It's an important recommendation for the Cape Region, where many residents testified at public hearings on the proposed Belle Terre development that allowing more units per acre than our zoning already allows is a recipe for gridlock.

In the motion to recommend denial of the zoning change, commissioners noted it would have allowed a gross density of more than three units per acre, exceeding the density of nearby developments. The recommendation to deny also notes that approving a rezoning to medium density residential would establish an unwanted precedent for other land along Mulberry Knoll Road.

These are all technical ways of saying that the county's agricultural-residential zoning already allows enough new houses to be built without adding more.

The commissioners have presented a well-founded recommendation that should be adopted when Sussex County Council votes on Belle Terre at an upcoming meeting.

At the same time, the commissioners failed to even mention one of the strongest reasons for rejecting this project: Plans called for cutting down two-thirds of the parcel's 55 acres of woodlands.

These woods lie in the Love Creek Natural Area, designated by state officials as eligible to be dedicated as a state nature preserve.

That's because in addition to providing rich wildlife habitat, these woodlands also reduce runoff that would otherwise flow into Love Creek and into Rehoboth Bay, increasing flooding and pollution of our Inland Bays.

Of all the land likely to be developed in this area, woodlands along the reaches of Love Creek should be preserved.

As both state officials and residents pointed out, preserving woodlands within Love Creek Natural Area still leaves plenty of Sussex County farmland for development.

County council should reject rezoning this land and should instead seek state assistance to encourage preservation of these beautiful, environmentally critical woodlands.