The Committee of 100 | FYI Archives

The draft Conservation Design Ordinance (see Fall 2002 FYI) which was unveiled last August "initially on a fast track" has been the subject of multiple public workshops that continued through the fall and into January. In addition to submitting to the Department of Land Use a 14-page memorandum which commented on the original draft, members of The Committee of 100 Land Use Committee have attended each of the workshops. The Committee of 100 often represented the only business presence at these workshops. On December 18, 2002, Executive Director Beverley Baxter, President Rick Stratford, and members of The Committee of 100's Land Use Committee and Environment Committee met with Charles Baker and his staff for a two-hour discussion of the latest draft (dated December 6, 2002) of the Ordinance. While the current working draft as been substantially modified, The Committee of 100 still has several major concerns which it addressed in both a letter to Charles Baker (attached) and in the last public workshop on January 6, 2003.

The Conservation Design Ordinance is only the latest in the ongoing addition of regulations that makes economic development more difficult and costly in New Castle County. The Committee of 100 has often pointed out that one of the most difficult parts of the regulatory climate is uncertainty. Because Section 03.319 of the Unified Development Code is the most blatant example of uncertainty in the process, The Committee of 100 has formally requested that 3.319 be removed from the UDC and that removal of 3.319 be made part of the Conservation Design Ordinance. Section 03.319 takes one of the most promising parts of the UDC (open-space planned communities) and robs it of its possibilities for good land-use planning.

Section 03.319 requires that Open Space Planned land development plans, even though they have met all the requirements of the UDC, have pubic hearings, first, before the Department and Planning Board and, then again, before County Council, prior to preliminary plan approval. At the end of the process, after an applicant has spent all the time and money it takes to get to this point in the planning process, the plan, at the Council hearing, is subject to the last-minute whims of Council, and, of course, anyone who petitions, and convinces, Council to make changes. 3.319 says that, "in making a final decision concerning whether to permit or not permit the specific Open Space Planned development . . . Council may impose limitation or conditions upon its approval of the ordinance." At this late step in the approval process -- even if the plan meets all the requirements of the UDC -- Council can change anything. Who can afford such uncertainty?

New Castle County Councilperson Karen Venezky will be the sponsor of the Conservation Design Ordinance. The Department of Land Use has indicated that the final version of the Ordinance will take into consideration written and workshop comments and the will of Councilperson Venezky.

We have already seen a significant reduction in economic development in New Castle County as development transfers to Kent and Sussex Counties, Delaware municipalities, and Cecil County, Maryland (a 400 DU swing from NCC to Middletown alone in 2002). In addition to the regulatory morass, uncertainty in the process is one of the greatest impediments to economic development in New Castle County. Removal of 3.319 from the UDC would be a major step not only in addressing uncertainty in the County's process, but also, in facilitating more creative developments.

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its Clean Air Act (CAA) New Source Review (NSR) program reforms in June and November 2002, there was widespread consternation in the East Coast states that are the "beneficiary" of all the nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from the coal-burning power plants and other industrial sources in the Midwest. Whereas the CAA requires older plants to include pollution-abatement processes when they modernize, the Bush Administration's proposal relaxes the standards. The Committee of 100 was one of many organizations which expressed concern about the impact upon Delaware of the proposed reforms because of how the release of ozone-creating pollutants in upwind states contributes to the formation of ozone in Delaware (see October 2002 FYI and attached letter to the EPA).

Delaware, a severe non-attainment area, was just barely able to cobble together its latest required State Improvement Plan (SIP) under the one-hour standard. In 2004, when the 8-hour standard is implemented, Delaware will have great difficulty meeting it. Non-attainment of our SIP will put economic development at risk. While Delaware's stationary-source polluters have, in most cases, substantially reduced emissions, that is not the case for exempt plants from the Midwest which send their emissions to Delaware.

The Bush Administration issued the final rules on New Year's Eve. Nine Eastern states -- New York, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont -- immediately filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Delaware did not join the suit.

Southern New Castle County in Flux

There are more things than ever conspiring against economic development in Southern New Castle County. The Gordon Administration does not expect any help from the State to address what the County sees as its annexation problem. With residential development moving to Middletown and the other municipalities in such great numbers, the County is again discussing throwing in the towel and rezoning the entire Southern part of the County. With mounting frustration over development in the municipalities, on annexed land, at densities higher than the UDC would have allowed, the County Executive has declared that, "the UDC is a noble experiment that failed." He has told civics that it does no good to have the highest standards in the Country if no one builds under them. With development now going into the municipalities and adjacent counties in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, New Castle County's infrastructure remains under growing pressure while the County is losing out on property-tax income. If there is not enough development to support it, the Southern Sewer System, at least as planned, is at risk. That, in turn, puts development that was planned in reliance upon the Southern Sewer System at risk.

Adding to its woes, the Gordon Administration expects the State to look to County income, possibly the transfer tax, to help with the State's budget crisis. After reorganizing and downsizing government when he took over as County Executive, Tom Gordon is now faced with losing the resources he managed to save for the County to fulfill his promise not to raise property taxes.

Equally disconcerting is the uncertainty of Council. The new makeup of Council lends uncertainty to all of the issues, including economic development in all of the County, let alone Southern New Castle County. The current brawling between the various parties only makes the situation worse. If responsible economic development is best served by certainty in the process, New Castle County, on its present course, is inviting something less.