GEORGETOWN, Del. - Affordable and workforce housing was discussed during the third Sussex County Land Use Reform Working Group meeting held Thursday morning.
The group comprises 10 members representing various interests, including affordable housing advocates, builders, citizens' groups, and farmers.
During the meeting, ideas were shared to promote more workforce and affordable housing in Sussex County.
One idea is to reduce lot sizes to allow more homes to be built on smaller lots and construct taller buildings with additional floors.
Other ideas included allowing missing middle housing types by-right. It was noted that a clear zoning code is needed to define what is allowed and what is not. Group members said the current code supports single-family homes and that anything different requires conditional use. A new code would need to allow other types of housing by-right.
The idea with the most support among the group was to focus development in designated growth areas.
Another idea is to create predictable zoning and permitting paths and to allow an expedited review process for affordable housing projects.
Some group members advocated for removing public hearings for these types of applications to help speed along projects that have already received state and federal approvals.
"The 10 stakeholders that are participating in the working group had a lot of ideas. You heard today some getting into the weeds topics, including whether or not there should be public hearings during these applications. That's an idea that has been discussed, maybe debated quite a while," said Todd F. Lawson, Sussex County administrator.
Johannes Sayre, a Lewes local who has attended all group's meetings, shared his concerns.
"Having the public be involved in the approval process, giving the public the opportunity to give input, that's part of governmental accountability to the public," Sayre said. "Government is accountable to the public for ensuring that its collective interests are secured, are not harmed, and in order to do that, public input is required in some form."
The working group says it will continue developing ideas, which will eventually become formal recommendations to the Sussex County Council by the summer.
After that, the council will decide which ideas to move forward with.
"This was the vision by Sussex County Council when the new council came in January to create a working group," Lawson said. "The process is working great so far."
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 19, from 2 to 4 p.m.