Land Use Committee

Land Use Committee

 The League is seeking a member(s) who will volunteer to chair or co-chair this committee, which is currently inactive.  After completing their goal of educating the public about Sussex County's 2018 Comprehensive Plan, the committee chairs stepped down to assume other league roles.  Concerns about the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan and other Land Use issues remain, especially in regard to the need for County Council to enact laws which support the 2018 Comp Plan.   Former Chair secmate47 [at] gmail.com (Sue Claire Harper) would be pleased to explain the committee's scope, and provide ongoing mentoring for an individual(s) considering this Chair.  If you have any interest, please contact the LWVSC president, grybm [at] outlook.com (Gwendolyn Miller).

 

About the Committee

Between January 2015 and April 2018, the LWVSC Land Use Committee held 16 public forums to educate and inspire residents on their pivotal role in the drafting of the state mandated 2018 Comprehensive Plan for Sussex County. This Plan, designed to create a roadmap for our County leadership to follow in future county development, contains ten elements: Land Use, Conservation, Recreation and Open Space, Utilities, Housing, Economic Development, Historic Preservation, Intergovernmental Coordination, Community Design, and Mobility.

Land Use Forums

The League’s 16 forums featured expert speaker panels and were held in the five councilmanic districts as well as in County Council chambers in Georgetown.  During this process, voters offered generous public input to both the Planning and Zoning Commission and the County Council to help shape and create a community vision with measurable goals, objectives, and strategies.  The Comp Plan was submitted to the state for approval in December 2018.  Governor Carney signed this document on March 19, 2019.  Sussex’s elected Councilmen must now adopt ordinances to give “teeth” to the Comp Plan, so that the Plan will have “the Force of Law”.  Without such ordinances, the Comp Plan will be virtually meaningless, and development will continue exponentially without any plan or control. 

Co-chairs Sue Claire and Marti want to sincerely thank all the committee members and community supporters who volunteered over the years to promote the Land Use Committee’s mission. Formed in 2014, the Land Use Committee has now fulfilled its original mandate and the co-chairs are stepping down to support other League efforts. 

 

About the Comprehensive Plan

We urge every resident to check out the County's website 2018 Comprehensive Plan page for updates on the challenging process our County Council members must follow to adopt ordinances relevant to the 2018 Comprehensive Plan.

The Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination (OSPC) website has made available both State and County Comprehensive Plan Checklists, as well as links to the PLUS (Preliminary Land Use Service) site, which provides access to the final certified comprehensive plans from Delaware's 57 municipalities and three counties. Also included on the PLUS site are links to plan amendments and supporting documents related to each plan.

 

Going Forward

Members will also be partnering with the advocacy group Sussex Alliance for Responsible Growth (SARG) This organization can be reached at sargnow [at] gmail.com to leave comments or to have their email addresses added to their distribution list.  SARG has built alliances with other grassroots organizations to ensure that the County is held accountable for the implementation of Sussex’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan.

 

For information and PowerPoint presentations from previous forums click here.