Village Center plans and Ed McMahon’s precepts

When Ed McMahon of the Urban Land Institute visited Rehoboth Beach recently to discuss characteristics of successful communities, it put me in mind of a meeting with Bryce Lingo in October 2014. He invited another reporter and me to discuss the latest plans of the Lingo-Townsend group for the Village Center along Kings Highway outside the corporate limits of Lewes.

Lingo started out by handing us copies of a book published in 2006 by the Urban Land Institute called Creating Walkable Places - Compact Mixed Use Solutions. In our discussion, he also referenced a book published in 2002 by Delaware’s Office of Planning Coordination titled Better Models for Development In Delaware - Ideas for Creating More Livable and Prosperous Communities.

Now, two years later, with a favorable Sussex Planning and Zoning recommendation in their pocket and a final vote by Sussex County Council on their requested rezoning for business use expected in the next several weeks, the Lingo-Townsend group continues to be guided by precepts in the books.

I met again with Bryce last week to revisit plans for the 75,000-square-foot proposal in light of McMahon’s recent talks. Once again the books were on the conference table. “Every concept and principle in both of those books is being followed in our Gills Neck plan,” he said. “And it’s not dissimilar to the many successful new communities across this country outlined in the Urban Land Institute book. This is not a new concept. We’re not reinventing the wheel.”

Lingo reiterated what anyone who has driven along the Gills Neck corridor can clearly see with their own eyes. There will eventually be more than 2,000 homes along that corridor. “That’s the same size as the existing City of Lewes without the hospital,” said Bryce. “We want to provide those homes with a connected, walkable and bikeable shopping area - grocery store, pharmacy, labs, doctors’ offices - that mimics the architecture of Second Street in Lewes. There’s a landscaping plan that buffers the shopping area from Kings Highway, we’ve already paid for $2 million in road improvements in that area and more coming, and we’ve preserved 250 acres of open space along Gills Neck including an 80-acre piece adjacent to the Senators. We will also have a trailhead parking area there.”

Bryce said he fully expects the architectural concepts to be part of the rezoning process.

He said the Gills Neck Road proposal is similar to the Rehoboth Gateway project where the new Wawa and Fresh Market stores opened recently. “Rehoboth Beach Country Club, Kings Creek, Bay Vista, Eagles Landing and other communities in that area represent more than 2,000 homes. Now they have services they can access without going out on Route 1. People thank me all the time for that. And people in Rehoboth Beach can cross Route 1 to get there without getting caught in Route 1 traffic. The Gills Neck plan follows the same concept, the same density.”

Traffic does concern Bryce, but he feels that with coming improvements including roundabouts, and fewer vehicle trips onto Kings Highway because people living in the Gills Neck corridor will be able to walk, bike or drive to the commercial services without traveling on Kings Highway, the system will still work. “That’s what walkable and bikeable communities are all about. And the high school is a blessing. It generates traffic at a time of the year when seasonal traffic is lower, and is closed in the summer when seasonal traffic is greatest.”

Here’s what he sees happening. “Right now everyone’s questioning everything - but then all of a sudden it will make complete and total sense. What we’ve proposed is a completely and totally responsible development.

“If it’s approved, we will prove it.”