FRANKFORD, Del. - The Vines Creek Crossing development site off Pepper Road in Frankford will soon bring hundreds of new homes to the area, sparking both excitement over economic growth and concern about the strain on local infrastructure.
Along Pepper Road in Frankford is construction for the new Vines Creek Crossing development after a groundbreaking ceremony last year. The development is set to bring 584 homes, ultimately bringing thousands into the town.
Hudson shared with CoastTV that housing developments must come along side other growth such as commercial growth.
Sheldon Hudson, Town Manager of Frankford, says this could double, if not triple or quadruple, the town's current population of roughly 1,000 people.
Town leaders say the growth is part of a broader effort to transform Frankford into a town that is more than a pass-through town, and into a larger economic hub. Frankford neighbors saw glimpses of that with the addition of a dispensary.
“It just makes good economic sense to concentrate the growth around the existing hubs, the existing towns,” Frankford Town Manager Sheldon Hudson tells CoastTV.
Hudson said affordability was a priority in planning the development and noted that residential growth will help expand the town’s tax base.
“So when you have residential growth, your tax base grows, obviously, and you can reinvest that,” Hudson says. “So the town is not looking to make a profit. We’re just looking for a way to bring in revenue that we can reinvest.”
The project is one of several developments contributing to rapid growth across Sussex County.
“I would like to see some infrastructure fixed before we add such an overwhelming amount of people down to Frankford,” Peggy Schafer, who works at the Presbyterian church in town, tells CoastTV.
Schafer said traffic congestion is among her biggest concerns as development continues.
“The biggest downfall, I think, is the traffic, and the roads are just not capable of handling the traffic that they’re sending through here,” Schafer says.
Hudson says he hopes the construction of houses themselves will begin in the coming months.
This construction nears the beginning as the town begins to work with DelDOT on a Community Transportation Plan to mitigate congestion and create safer roadways for the Frankford community.
As development continues, Frankford finds itself balancing the opportunities of growth with concerns over growing pains, standing at what residents describe as a crossroads between beach and country living.
