Sussex County Council Returns from Break with Cheerleaders, Paramedics and Buffers and More
The Sussex County Council met for the first time in over 2 weeks and had a packed agenda – including an presentation from Executive Director, Patti Grimes of the Freeman Foundation. The Council also paid tribute to the Cape Henlopen Cheerleaders who won the 2022 State Championship held at Smyrna High School in March.
EMS Director Robbie Murray brought a lease agreement to the Council – looking to expand paramedic service in the beach area – specifically to Dewey Beach. Murray told the council that they are seeing an increase in the average calls in the Lewes/Rehoboth fire district – at about 21 daily in July over 24 hours – the average for most areas is about 10 calls. This would be a daytime only, single person paramedic unit and would be in operation from Memorial Day through Labor Day and housed behind the Dewey Beach Code Enforcement and Parking office where there are apartments that the town is willing to lease to EMS for an annual fee of $500 – to help offset utility costs. The council approved the lease agreement with a unanimous vote.
Director of Economic Development Bill Pfaff had two lease agreements for the Delaware Coastal Business Park. The Eastern Shore Poultry Company has been a tenant of the business park since1992 and has asked for an extension to their lease for another 10 years. JDJS, LLC / JennyGems is a new tenant to the business park and has been approved for a 30 year lease witih two additional 5-year renewals. It was a question from Councilman Mark Schaeffer that brought an update on a program brought to the council two years ago – the Kitchen Incubator. The incubator will have a home in the Carter Partnership Center at Delaware Tech in Georgetown – and could be up and running sometime this coming summer. The Kitchen Incubator is a non-profit commercial kitchen that would be rented on a daily or monthly basis by chefs, caterers, farmers or others to expand their production without the hefty costs of surplus equipment for a home or small business. Up to three businesses could be working at the same time.
In Old Business – the council heard more on buffers. During the two weeks that the council did not meet, staff has been working to update the ordinance amendment after two lengthy public hearings earlier this year. Assistant County Attorney, Vince Robertson went through a long list of definition changes to the ordinance as well as other updates to the ordinance that have been discussed by both the public and the Council. No vote was taken as additional tweaking is still needed after the discussion today. The buffer ordinance will be revisited in a few weeks.
After the morning session, the members of the County Council went to the County Emergency Operations Center at the Delaware Coastal Airport in Georgetown to witness the final steel beam being hoisted into place atop the EOC. Before the beam was raised, guests signed the beam to mark the occasion. The EOC is in the midst of a $12-million expansion project to make it an all-inclusive public safety complex for 9-1-1 dispatchers, paramedics and other emergency officials – and house all of the County’s public safety resources – police, fire and EMS – in one location. The expansion should be completed in early 2023 and was funded with money from the County’s portion of the State realty transfer tax.
During the afternoon session, the County Council was presented with a Tourist Home in Conditional Use 2285. It’s a ‘tiny house’ placed on a residential property off Cave Neck Road. The County Planning Commission, while calling this a topic that needs discussion, recommended denial of the application. The home falls in no actual designation and the conditional use application was deemed the best option. One Seaford man supported the application – but mostly in the future possible use of tiny houses to help boost affordable housing in Sussex County. The Council was advised by legal staff to defer their vote.
The County Council approved a Change of Zone 1953 for Brasure Holdings to amend the comprehensive zoning map from an AR-1 Residential District to a C-2 medium commercial district for an over 1.6-acre parcel.
The final three applications for Henlopen Properties – CZ 1967 and 1968 and CU 2334 went on for several hours. This is for 267 multi-family residential units off Kings Highway at Gills Neck Road – across from Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes. Several people spoke against the application. The Lewes Board of Public Works has asked for time to study a report that was just made available today on a well-head protection issue, so the record will be left open for two weeks (May 6) for the Lewes BPW and any other person to submit their reports on the well-head protection issue only and another two weeks (May 20) for additional comment from the developer.
The May 3rd meeting is a budget workshop at the County’s West Complex on Route 113. The next Council meeting will be May 10 in the County Administration Building on the Circle in Georgetown.
