New Castle County redevelopment reform passes
Council OKs ordinance to tighten restrictions

New Castle  County Council passed an ordinance Tuesday that will end the paper redevelopment controversy and add more restrictions for developers trying to build new-construction projects on properties that now have aging, dilapidated buildings on them.

The reform measure passed by a 12-0 vote . County Executive Paul Clark said he will quickly sign it into law.

"The ordinance has been a collaborative effort between council and my administration," Clark said. "Over the last year, we have taken comments by citizens, state planners and the county Planning Board and put together something that will still allow for the redevelopment of old sites so they will be productive again, yet adds more restrictions."

For the past year, county officials have been under political pressure to make changes to the redevelopment code following a series of News Journal articles about how the law has been applied toward an undeveloped tract of land along U.S. 40 in Bear and a functioning office park along Del. 141 near Greenville.

Tuesday's vote marked the latest chapter of a year-long debate in the county over whether developers who want to rehabilitate existing properties  should get special perks, which include waivers from traffic studies and paying project-impact fees.

The ordinance, sponsored by Councilmen Joe Reda and Dave Tackett, includes the following changes:

» Developers will no longer get credit for approved square footage from plans filed long ago that were never built. The sponsors said this would prevent another paper redevelopment plan that angered residents near the proposed Governor's Square III Shopping Center in Bear, which was granted redevelopment status, even though the 37-acre property has only a small bank on it. The redevelopment law was first envisioned for developers who were going to tear down old gas stations, shopping centers and other businesses, not for projects to be built on mostly vacant land.

» The county Land Use Department now has the authority to call for a traffic-impact study for redevelopment projects, in addition to DelDOT. The Barley Mill Plaza office 

» Developers must choose between applying for redevelopment status or getting zoning variances. They cannot do both.

The reforms passed Tuesday will only apply to future projects, not Governor's Square III or Barley Mill. The developers of Governor's Square III withdrew their plans as a redevelopment project in response to community opposition.

More reform possible

The redevelopment law could be reformed yet again later this year. Planning Board Chairman Victor Singer said the board could still bring more ideas to the council for their consideration. Tackett said he would welcome the board's additional suggestions.

Even though Councilman Bob Weiner voted for the ordinance, he said it didn't go far enough. Weiner had introduced a more-restrictive ordinance that county officials said would have ended the redevelopment program and would have caused developers to build on green fields instead.

Weiner tried to introduce an amendment to the Reda-Tackett ordinance Tuesday that would have asked for a traffic-impact study for any redevelopment project that required a rezoning. A rezoning means that a property would cause different traffic patterns for the roads around it. For example, the roads around Barley Mill that were once full of office workers at rush-hour would instead be busy at different times of the day as shopping center customers go there.

"I urge you to support my amendment requiring a traffic-impact study, which doesn't just mean a study, but that a fair share of needed improvements have to be paid for by the developer," Weiner told the council.

His colleagues apparently thought that would have gone too far. His motion to add his idea to the ordinance was not seconded by a council member, so it died.

Paul Morrill, executive director of the Committee of 100 business group, supported the ordinance, calling the county's redevelopment program "an undeniable success."

"It's fair to say in the past three or four years it's been responsible for all development since the recession," he said.

The original version of the Reda-Tackett bill did not address paper redevelopment and didn't give the county Land Use Department the ability to call for a traffic-impact study. The changes to the final version caused some community groups that once favored Weiner's ordinance to support Reda's and Tackett's instead.

"We thought the original ordinance was a bit unfair," Milltown-Limestone Civic Alliance President Bill Franey said.

Franey urged council to pass the updated version and to review any more reforms suggested by the Planning Board in the coming months.