The Committee of 100 | FYI Archives

With Alex Taft gone from WILMAPCO and David Hunt from the City of Wilmington, there is a transportation leadership vacuum which is beginning to be felt. Alex Taft resigned as Executive Director of WILMAPCO to become the Executive Director of the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organization, the umbrella group in Washington, D.C. which represents the 350 regional transportation planning agencies throughout the United States. David Hunt, Transportation Advisor to the Mayor, left the City for the private sector. With the change in administration coming at the State level, and possible change at other levels, uncertainty is in the air.

In Wilmington, first Alex, as the City's Director of Transportation, and then David, as his successor, brought a combination of transportation expertise and an understanding of ISTEA (the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act) and then TEA-21 (the Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century) to the City which enabled it to get, for the first time, substantial federal dollars for desperately-needed transportation improvements. The multitude of projects now under construction or design are a direct result of first Alex's and then David's work in partnering with DelDOT and WILMAPCO. David has not been replaced in the City and there is no person or mechanism in place to continue to identify transportation project needs and shepherd them through the approval and funding maze. Indeed, there are projects which began with Alex and David which are now fully funded and are delayed only by the City's pace of managing the bid process.

At WILMAPCO, Alex Taft's announcement of his departure was delayed until after Deputy Director Charles Baker had left WILMAPCO to take a position in New Castle County's Department of Land Use. Senior Planner/Engineer Tigist Zegeye was promoted to Deputy Director, but she will be taking maternity leave in May, which leaves the agency without leadership. Charles Baker has been asked to serve as a part-time acting ED, but he is only spending two hours on Monday mornings at WILMAPCO, not enough to provide the leadership needed. In addition, as a result of the 2000 elections, the WILMAPCO Council, which appoints the Executive Director, will itself be changing. The Council includes Delaware's representatives--Secretary of Transportation Anne Canby, Director of the Delaware Transportation Corporation Ray Miller, and Governor Carper's Chief of Staff Jeff Bullock; New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon; Wilmington Mayor Jim Sills; Odessa Mayor Jim Grant, representing New Castle County municipalities; and three Maryland members--Elkton Mayor Robert Alt, Cecil County Commissioner Nelson Bolender, and Maryland Department of Transportation Office of Planning and Capital Programming Director Marsha Kaiser. Because faces on the Council will be changing, and because the philosophy behind transportation decisions may also change with new administrations, it will be difficult to find someone willing to take the Executive Director's position in the near term. The problem is not leadership alone. As it is short of staff, WILMAPCO will not be able to continue the pace of transportation planning and improvement projects that have marked Alex Taft's tenure. For example, Tigist Zegeye was scheduled to be loaned to the City to manage the Trolley project full time to ensure compliance with the complicated, strict, and time-constrained federal requirements for funding approval. However, as Deputy Director, with no full-time director and short on staff, that is not a viable option for Tigist.

Venezky Ordinance Update

The public hearing before the Planning Board of the Venezky Ordinances (99-146 and 099-151) was, for a second time, delayed. In February, Karen requested a delay in the hearing on her ordinances because she wanted to prepare substitutes; in March, she again requested a delay to allow more time to review her substitutes. Since their introduction, these ordinances have generated substantial concern and opposition because of the impact they would have on economic development in New Castle County.

Substitute No. 1 to Ord. 99-146 requires traffic impact studies for minor record subdivision or land development plans if proposed developments generate more than fifty peak hour trips, including trips that are diverted from existing traffic. The Substitute provides exceptions for "brownfield development," "public facilities needed to support new development," and "churches." When a traffic impact study is required, "the transportation capacity allocated to a proposed development shall be based upon the most limited intersection(s)." Because there are intersections all over the County which have inadequate Levels of Service (LOS), it will be difficult to find a site that will be able to pass the County's level of service requirement.

Even in its substitute form, this ordinance violates the planning principles underlying the County's Comprehensive Plan and Unified Development Code (as well as the State's Shaping Delaware's Future). Each of these documents encourages infill as a cost-effective way of providing infrastructure, supporting transit, preserving open space, and deterring sprawl. Excepting the minor plan from the constraints of traffic impact studies and the County's onerous level of service requirements is the primary mechanism in the UDC to encourage infill and discourage sprawl. By UDC definition, and in reality, minor plans have minor impact. In addition, because of the constraints of the UDC that so severely limit development in the County, it is primarily minor plans which are keeping economic development alive in New Castle County. Other than projects submitted prior to the UDC and major plans with major CIP-funded infrastructure (e.g., AstraZeneca and First USA), it is mostly minor plans which are moving thorough the County's approval process. Major plans are possible for companies with sufficient resources (and determination to expand in New Castle County) to afford the studies, the waiver process, the mitigation costs, and the political uncertainty accompanying the process.

While this new requirement for minor plans will hurt small businesses the most, it has the potential for impacting every company, large or small, which wants a minor expansion. The sweeping impact of this ordinance includes not only businesses, but also, schools and other public, as well as non-profit, institutions.
Substitute No. 1 for Ordinance 99-151 revises the original ordinance to emphasize the enforcement of violations involving "work being performed in an unsafe or dangerous manner, or that jeopardizes the health, safety or welfare of the public" or to work being done "in the absence of necessary approval(s), plan(s), or permit(s)." Such unsafe or unapproved work is subject to a stop work order and civil and criminal penalties. Also revised is the guilty-by-association paragraph which originally targeted "any agent or subcontractor of the applicant, or to any corporation, partnership, joint venture, or other legal entity with which the applicant is associated." That key paragraph now reads, in part:

As Karen is out of the country through the end of the month, it is not clear when she plans to bring these ordinances before the Planning Board.