MEMORANDUM
Date: October
19, 2007
To: ACEC Delaware
Executive Committee
From: Jessica
D. Nichols
RE: SUSSEX
COUNTY MEETING MINUTES
An ACEC
Partnering Committee meeting was held on October 17, 2007 with Hal Godwin,
Assistant to the Administrator of Sussex County, regarding the revisions to the
Sussex County Comprehensive Plan.
Meeting attendees included:
Hal Godwin Sussex
County
Doug Warner Duffield
& Associates
Stephen Lee Century
Engineering
Bruce Horne ECI
Christopher
Weeks Becker
Morgan
Jessica
Nichols Karins
and Associates
The
following items were discussed:
Status
of Comprehensive Plan Approval
Currently
Sussex County is in the process of conducting meetings with all of the
municipalities to insure that the growth areas represented in the Draft Comp
plan will coordinate with the future annexation area of the municipalities. There will be a DelDOT presentation
Tuesday October 23rd at Sussex County Planning and Zoning regarding
the mobility element of the plan. Once the meetings are complete and the Draft
will be revised and submitted to PLUS for review and comment from the
State. After PLUS the revised (if
necessary) Draft will be submitted to Sussex County Planning & Zoning and there
will be a hearing held for public comment and for Planning & Zoning to make
a recommendation to Sussex County Council. Another hearing will be held with Council once Planning
& Zoning has made a recommendation.
The goal is to have the Comp plan approved by Council by January of
2008; however, Mr. Godwin stated that they had an extension to April 2008 and
that that is probably a more realistic timeframe.
The
codifying of the guidelines in the Comprehensive Plan into Ordinances by Sussex
County Planning & Zoning
Questions
were raised regarding the timeline for Planning and Zoning to create/approve
the ordinances which will be suggested in Comprehensive Plan once it is
approved. It was stated that many
of the ordinances that were suggested in the 2002 Comprehensive Plan were never
approved as ordinances by Planning & Zoning. Mr. Godwin mentioned that he believes there is an 18 month
period in which P&Z has to codify the ordinances suggested in the Comp
Plan; however, he is unsure of when that 18 month period begins.
Regional
Planning
Regional Planning
was discussed with regards to transportation, water and sewer infrastructure as
well as regional stormwater facilities.
Impact fees and developer contribution for improvements both on and
off-site improvements was talked about.
Lengthy discussion regarding the coordination between the Sussex County
Engineering Department and Artesian and Tidewater for sewer infrastructure was
had. Most attendees agreed that it
is more desirable to have a large regional system with adequate conveyance
systems than many private systems and pump stations scattered around the County,
which is currently the trend. Mr.
Godwin suggested that Sussex County Engineering Department should have more
control over the sewer system design/construction even if it is to be an Artesian
or Tidewater system. Concerns from
the engineers were that this would require another review from the Engineering
Department and also that there is a lack of confidence in the Engineering
Departments ability to review and handle this responsibility.
Source
Water Protection Ordinance
Sussex
County is currently working on a Source Water Protection Ordinance. A committee has been formed to work on
the ordinance. The diversity of
the members of the committee was questioned as the vast majority of committee
members own a huge amount of land in Sussex County and would be adversely
affected by an ordinance which limits what they can do on their land. Mr. Godwin seemed fairly confident that
the draft ordinance would be denied by DNREC. The timeframe for approval of a Source Water Protection
Ordinance is unknown.
Website: www.cecde.org E-mail: cecde@dea.net
Website: www.cecde.org P. O. Box 1858
Phone: 302-730-8384
E-mail: cecde@dea.net Dover, DE 19901-1858
Toll Free: 302-442-3233
Fax:
302-734-0580
Website: www.cecde.org E-mail: cecde@dea.net