State to review new Village Center plans

The latest chapter in a seven-year land-use debate near Lewes is now set to unfold.

Developer Jack Lingo Asset Management LLC of Rehoboth Beach has resubmitted plans to state officials for a proposed rezoning and site plan for a downsized and renamed Village Center shopping complex at the intersection of Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road in Lewes.

The developer has scaled down the size of retail space by more than 30 percent and provided 27 acres for community use. The acreage of land for retail space has been reduced from 46 acres to 33 acres.

The developer is seeking approval to rezone the parcel from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to CR-1, commercial-residential, in order for the project to proceed.

A Preliminary Land Use Service hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 25, in room 133 of the Haslet Armory, 122 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dover.

The new proposal is the third genesis of the Village Center plan. State agencies will review the project containing 203,000 square feet of retail space plus another 27 acres for a proposed community center and new YMCA facility. According to the PLUS application, the project would generate nearly 11,500 average weekday vehicle trips.

The owner of the parcel is J.G. Townsend Jr. and Co. of Georgetown.

The conceptual plan includes 11 buildings ranging in size from 9,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet with 1,127 parking spaces and six out parcels averaging 5,000 square feet along Kings Highway. An entrance is provided along Kings Highway.

The proposed 27 acres for community use includes 17 acres for a new 16,500-square-foot YMCA with sports fields and an outdoor pool, and 10 acres for an arts center with a one-acre garden. A total of nearly 600 parking spaces is proposed for the community facilities.

The proposed center would connect by road to the Governors subdivision with a proposed access off Kings Highway.

The original proposal in 2008 for the Townsend Village Centre contained 521,000 square feet of retail space on 68 acres. When that plan and accompanying rezoning request were not endorsed by the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission, they were withdrawn, in December 2008, before county council could vote on the application.

The developer came back with a scaled-down, 300,000-square-foot complex that was denied in January 2010 by Sussex County Council.

Two months later, L.T. Associates appealed that decision to Chancery Court and then refiled the case in federal court, which the developer's attorney said had jurisdiction.

In August, the developer was granted a stay through May 28 to allow time to develop and submit a new land-use application to county officials.

Once the PLUS process is completed, the application will be filed for a third time with Sussex County to set public hearings before the planning and zoning commission and county council. Under the county land-use application system, the commission makes a recommendation to the five members of county council who take the final vote on rezoning applications.

The PLUS application can be found at www.stateplanning.delaware.gov/plus/projects/2015/2015-03-02.pdf.