Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the July 15th meeting of the Georgetown Planning Commission. I call the meeting to order. Our first order of business is to recognize our newest member, Jennifer Weaver. Jennifer, welcome. Thank you. And our next order of business is to select a chair. Is there a motion for a new chair?

I make a motion that we have Larry Rolfing as our chair.

Motion, is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Our next order of business is selection of a vice chair.

I'll make a motion for .

Got a motion. Is there a second?

I second.

Motion second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. And finally, a selection of a new secretary.

I make a motion for Tom Allen to be the secretary.

We have a motion. Is there a second?

A second.

Motion second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. All right. Our next order of business is approval of the minutes from June 17th. Yeah, June 17th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Is there a second? Motion and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. Okay. Now, our next order of business is case number 2026-11, Tower Square. It's an application by CW Property Investments, LLC, for a petition of annexation into the corporate limits of the town of Georgetown. The property's located at 20200 and 20224 DuPont Boulevard. It's located in a potential annexation area with future land use designation of commercial. The applicant would like to take the podium.

I'm sure that will pop up here in just a few seconds. I can go ahead and get started. Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the Planning Commission. For the record, my name is Mark Davidson. I'm a principal land planner with Pannoni Associates. representing CW Property Investments LLC, the applicant for the proposed tower square annexation petition. With me tonight are Mr. and Mrs. Will Hall. They are the managing members of CW Property Investments. Also with me is Alan Decker, professional engineer with Pannoni Associates who's gonna be managing this project through the process. Um, this evening's presentation will follow the order of the PowerPoint. So we submitted a PowerPoint project and I'm sure you probably, you might have it up on your screen. It's coming up. Okay. So, and it's, it's intended to introduce the annexation request, explain the consistencies with the plan Georgetown and outline the preliminary project information that will be refined through the town subsequent review process. So the applicant is requesting annexation of the properties located at 20200 and 20224 DuPont Boulevard, identified as Sussex County tax parcels as 13514, 32.00, and 32.01 into corporate limits of the town of Georgetown. The property lies within the town's potential annexation area and carries a future land use designation of commercial. Titian also seeks an initial highway commercial zoning designation, which is intended to align the property with the town's comprehensive plan, zoning framework, and the commercial character of the Route 113 corridor. The request is consistent with planned Georgetown's stated mission to plan for the future while preserving, protecting, and enhancing the quality of life in the town. The annexation also supports the plan's land use goals by promoting consistency between the zoning map and planned Georgetown and encouraging orderly development within the, and adjacent to the town, supporting appropriate redevelopment and allowing compatible annexation of the town's borders. I did bring the PowerPoint with me, Brian. might be important to show these exhibits if you So the future land use map identifies the property as part of the commercial growth area. This designation supports continued commercial investment and provides planning basis for bringing the property into the town where future development can occur under the town's direct zoning site plan utility infrastructure review framework. The property is also located within the town's designated potential annexation area. Plan Georgetown recognizes the importance of controlled growth, expansion of town services, clear regulations, and coordinated planning. Annexation in this location is therefore consistent with the town's long range boundary planning and allows Georgetown to guide the future character of this important commercial gateway. So from a fiscal and public policy standpoint, annexation of this commercial property is expected to strengthen the town's tax base, support municipal services, encourage business investment and promote job creation. incorporating the property into the town allows future economic activity permit activity permit activity utility services and private investment to occur within georgetown's municipal framework while supporting long-term planning for public services and infrastructure so for the purposes of assisting the town with this fiscal impact review brian had sent us an email asking us some questions so i'm just going to outline some of the fiscal Economic growth that this this project is going to bring to the town So a building only construction cost was evaluated using a preliminary planning level range based on the conceptual development program so I'll go back to the Here's the concept plan in which we've submitted as part of the annexation application and So the conceptual development program consists of approximately 78,300 square feet of an indoor recreation ice rink, approximately 107,580 square feet of commercial shopping center space, and approximately 94,960 square feet of flex storage warehouse park space. The estimate I'll tell you about will exclude site work, roadway improvements, utilities, stormwater management facilities, landscaping, delta improvements, permitting, engineering, contingencies, financing, and soft costs. So based on this current conceptual program, and again, this is just the building costs, which is what the building permits and your impact fees are factored on, the building-only construction estimate is approximately $53 million to $76 million. This range is provided, again, this range is provided solely to assist the town in evaluating potential fiscal impact. And again, should not be interpreted as a guaranteed construction budget or final assessed value. The current Sussex County zoning is identified on this as AR1 and C1, C1 being along the frontage of DuPont Boulevard, Route 113. Historically, the property has been a recognizable commercial landmark and was formerly home to a radio broadcast facility. More recently, portions of the site have been used for equipment sales, antique retail, owner storage, outdoor storage, and other business related activities that are characteristic of the highway commercial corridor. so as part of the annexation as we came before we came in we did a minor subdivision to sussex county the property coming in for annexations fifty five point one we did a minor subdivision sub-divide ten-acre parcel in the back also come in so this is coming into parts of that was the to tax portion thirty two and thirty two one The first, the up front parcel is 45.1 acres and then the 10 acre parcel in the back. And as you can see on this property here, you can see what's being occupied right now. The building up all the way to the north of the property is in the ground. The existing radio station building that used to be there is now occupied by an antique retailer and then in the back there's some storage for the owners. The materials also that were submitted as part of this application include the required annexation application, sealed survey plat demonstrating that we are contiguous to the town's borders, current deed information, proposed site plan, and a narrative addressing the reasons for annexation and comprehensive plan consistencies. The conceptual plan envisions a phased commercial redevelopment that will include retail establishments, flex commercial space, self-storage and warehouse facilities and a recreational ice arena. The concept identifies a total conceptual parking supply of 1,199 parking spaces, including 771 retail spaces, 264 ice rink spaces, 21 warehouse and storage spaces, 143 flex space parking spaces. And these figures are preliminary and will be reviewed further through the town site plan parking utility fire marshal building code and DelDOT review process. In the back back here, the proposed flex buildings are intended to function as adaptable commercial building capable of accommodating a range of highway commercial compatible tenants. The current concept anticipates uses such as contractor service businesses, small warehouse and storage operations, showroom, retail, support space, business services, professional or administrative office components, and similar low impact commercial uses. The term flex is used because these buildings are designed to allow internal tenant spaces to adjust over time as market conditions and user needs evolved, while remaining subject to the town zoning site plan, parking, utility, fire marshal, and building code requirements. The 10 acres in the back shown in the green here is left for future use and determination of uses by the applicant. So as you can see with this site plan here, we are proposing, and I'll talk about the traffic impact study a little bit towards the end. One entrance over here, and you can see a central boulevard that comes all the way to the back that can branch off and that will serve the ice rink as proposed in the back, on the north back, in the middle of the property in the backpack there. And you can see that there's sufficient parking being planned to be able to handle the events and being able to handle the ice rink in the back as well as sufficient parking and building placement for all kinds of retail and commercial uses within this site. So currently the submitted materials identified right now the site is using an existing on-site water and waste water. So town utilities will be extended up the highway for this site. So a proposed pump station will be planned within this property here and a force main to connect to the town of Georgetown. Also, existing water surfaces for both fire and domestic will be extended to this property. Just preliminarily right now, we've come up with some EDU calculations. But until we can get to the final design of the site, the final uses, which building is going to be restaurant, which ones are going to just be commercial spaces, some of the flex spaces at the back could be utilized for more office space rather than storage and warehousing. So when that comes up, we will be able to identify the number of edu's that this project that this project could project but just from the shopping center retail right now up front here with 107 580 square feet if you use the town's calculation of one edu per 3 000 square feet that just up front will project about 36 edus for the town Once we figure out what the ice rink is going to handle, if the ice rink's gonna have concessions inside, they could have a restaurant, concessions, and other activities, then we'll be able to factor and figure out the number of seats and everything else. We'll figure out what those EDUs are for the town. So right now, when we come up with an EDU assessment, they'll just be a placeholder until we can get to more of a final stage within our plans. So we did prepare a traffic impact study for the project. So the project was required to do that. So preliminary traffic impact study has been prepared for the developments. It has been submitted to Delta through the planning and development coordination application process. The TIS identifies the project, again, as a mixed-use commercial development with proposed annexation in the town of Georgetown utilizing highway commercial. So that's what we prepare. The traffic impact study takes into account that this is already annexed into the town of Georgetown and is zoned highway commercial. The study evaluated the 2026 conditions with future conditions all the way out to 2035. We studied 16 intersections, so that was required by DELDOT. So through the pre-development and through the scoping meeting with DELDOT, they identified 16 intersections in this area, up and down 113, as well as we evaluated the overpass that's being planned just south of the site. So we're studying that overpass as well as it relates to the traffic that's going to be generated with this development. The traffic analysis incorporated summer Saturday traffic counts, as we know that the weekends around this area seem to have more traffic, although I think that's changing every day within this county. So, DELDOT has issued us comments and we, on July 8th, we addressed those comments and submitted those back to DELDOT and we're moving through the final stages of having that traffic impact study finalized for this particular project. So from an annexation perspective, the requested information supports the town's ability to evaluate fiscal utility, land use, and transportation impacts before making a recommendation to town council. The annexation itself does not constitute a final site plan approval, building permit approvals, final utility location, or final DELDOT approval. Rather, annexation would bring the property under the town's Municipal planning zoning utility and infrastructure review framework allowing the town to exercise direct oversight over the ultimate land development plan I So at this time, we respectfully submit that the proposed annexation represents a logical and beneficial extension of Georgetown's corporate boundaries, is consistent with the town's comprehensive plan and provides a framework for responsible commercial growth that will benefit the community both now and in the future. We appreciate your time and consideration and welcome any preliminary questions from the commission.

Questions from the commission?

Comment. Sounds like an exciting project.

It is.

I was concerned

Not typically, not in this scenario here. Again, we are trying to keep as much buffering as we can around the site in this particular area here. We're not proposing any activity behind these buildings that will be adjacent to the new town boundary line, which will be on the north side of this boundary. So we're trying to keep everything internal and inclusive within the boundary of this site.

Is there ever a possibility of an exit to the simple road?

That would most likely have to happen through acquisition of land, if that ever did occur. But at this time, we're not proposing anything because there's the parcel, it's a large parcel on that side crossing a large tax ditch. It's a main tax ditch there, so nothing is shown at this time. We do show that a sub could occur at some point in time if that ever wanted to happen, but the town of georgetown's annexation line stops right at the border of this property here so they're not it doesn't unless when they go to renew their comprehensive plan in the future where they add more parcels to the north then a connection could be recognized at that point but right now it's we are the furthest north property in the town of georgetown's annexation We haven't gotten that far into the process yet.

Other questions? I think it's an exciting opportunity for this town, so I'm looking forward to see it progress. So happy to see you come back with the answer so that we can actually take action on it.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. all right uh next order of business is case number 2023-04 the oaks of georgetown phase two an application by lenore maryland delaware for the review and approval of updated townhouse exterior elevations property is located at the corner of south bedford and aero safety road zone mr1 with an rpc overlay

Good evening, members of the commission. Rob Cohey, representing Lennar on behalf of the Oaks. What we're looking to do here is just add some elevation enhancements by varying our stone heights. We have some pre-approved elevations that are already approved, rather. There. So these are the approved elevations one through five. Essentially, what we're going to what we're requesting is to be allowed to fluctuate the stone height on the fronts of each one of these already approved elevations from a water table, which is approximately three feet off the ground to a one story to a two story and any of those configurations. So as we flip through Elevation 1, the one that's highlighted in red here, is already approved with the one-story stone. What we're looking to do is also add the water table, which you see on the left, and the two-story stone, which you see on the right. We also want to relabel these from the master plan from an Elevation 1 to a D2, D3, D4, just because it works better within our systems to be able to identify it. And that would be somewhat repeated throughout the plans. Elevation two is the same exact request to add the water table and a two-story. Elevation three, we are already approved with a two-story. We're looking to add a one-story and the water table stone. Elevation four, looking to add the water table stone and a two-story stone. Again, all of the other features remain consistent throughout. It's just changing the height of the stone and the siding relationship. And then same thing with number five. We were already approved with the two-story stone. Looking to change that to, or add a water table and one story as well. What we're trying to avoid, these are all the approved elevations as they exist. And what we identified was that they look a little blocky when paired together with a lot of stone being very weighted on this part of the building. So by being able to fluctuate our stone height, we can add a little bit of lightness and better curb appeal to the building overall. And these are some renderings with some of those features already. Kind of hard to see because they're buried behind some of the trees there, but the one-story stone on the second unit in, or excuse me, water table stone on the second unit in, and some one-story and two-stories all mixed together. More of the same just to kind of show a little bit more fluctuation so there's a little bit better curb appeal and it lightens it up a little bit. I think that's about it. And it's just the request to change it from the planning, from the approved plan elevation nomenclature so that way we can identify it better on our systems.

Questions from the Commission?

Just more curiosity than anything else. I like the idea of breaking it up like that. How does that affect the overall price to the consumer?

um so i assume the water table unit would be less expensive yes slightly yep um the cost of stone obviously being a little bit more expensive than siding um so the higher we go up with it the there's a little bit more of a premium for the elevation but each elevation is costed appropriately i think i was a little concerned about the two-story stone like exactly what you said looking too blocky

Is there any way they can do every other, like, you know, try not to have all these blocks of two stories down and then you have a water

so that's what we're looking to do we're looking to add the elevations to the approved plan sets to be able to pick them and make sure that they are balanced right now the way that they are currently approved we could potentially have two units two three units next door to each other that have two story stone that's going to look and feel very heavy so adding those extra elevations will allow us to be able to balance it much better

And you can predetermine two story, one story and then correct.

Yep. Yep. Prior to any construction, they have all they'll go through and essentially spec out the entire community from a marketing standpoint to make sure that it looks as as good as possible.

Other questions? There are none. Is there a motion?

I make a motion to approve the architectural elevations as presented.

We have a motion, is there a second?

I'll second.

OK, we have a motion, second. We'll take a roll call vote. Commissioner Weaver? Yes. Commissioner Allen? Commissioner Roach? Yes. Commissioner Locates? Yes. And I'm a yes as well. I think it will add to the overall aesthetic of the property. Great. Thank you. Congratulations.

Appreciate it. And as somebody who was displaced by the Harrington ice rink closure, and this was just a coincidence, super, super exciting to know that there's potential. Absolutely. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Our next order of business is an informal concept plan review for 301 North Railroad Avenue. Discussion regarding the voluntary concept review request by Engine House LLC for a potential application for a townhouse residential development. Properties located at 301 North Railroad Avenue, zones UB1.

Evening. My name is Doug Liberman with Larson Engineering here representing the owner, Ethan Rhodes, for this project. What we're looking at here and what we're trying to do is the existing site. It's easier to point. In the existing site, we have six rental townhouses on the property. And we'd like to add five more to the site. And this is kind of the leftover portion of the site that we're trying to add the building onto, trying to clean this whole site up. We can get the required amount of parking on the site to do this. There's 22 required for the 11 townhomes, and we can get 24 parking spaces onto the property. And then we also can get the required open space for just these 11 units. We're required to have The lot itself is .57 acres, so 5% of that gets our open space and our requirement, and that's 1,242 square feet. And right now we're showing 1,830 square feet. So we're over that number. So really this is just a concept presentation to you guys. It's not a binding thing. We're not looking for a decision or anything. We're just kind of looking for some feedback the ability to expand on this site and then also, you know, potentially take a look at the renderings that we've presented on here. I think just looking at the site as to where it is, it's the southwest corner of Depot Street and Railroad Avenue. um as uh i'm sure people are going down depot street and then and turn left to go down railroad avenue and that's the site right there and as the owner likes to say this town of georgetown stole property from him for a uh for the uh right turn on to on the depot street but uh we're moving past that so uh we uh Again, it's just a real informal application for you guys tonight to kind of get some feels out to see if this is something that the town would like us to pursue. Yeah, sure.

Good evening. My name's Cameron Llewellyn, and we're Tidemark Construction. We're a design build firm. And anybody that's seen the Splash Laundry a few blocks west, we did that. Or no, that's east. So this building here, they used to work on the locomotives in there. and in fact the uh the couple that own it her grandfather actually had a heart attack and died in that building working on a locomotive so the underneath the railroad tracks still run through that building and they bought the property in 89 turned it into apartments and historically they've been filled as soon as somebody moves out there's a line around the corner waiting for one so But they rent them at a very affordable rate, which is something that's very important to us as communities up and down the state. So what you're seeing on the north end, those huts, they used to be the bins for coal for the locomotives years ago. And then when they turned them into apartments, they just framed a wall on top of that and turned them into a storage unit. Jamie can tell me. I think it was 2017. Somebody decided to move into one and was burning things to stay warm and burnt half of them down. So we're left with these concrete bins that are just kind of unsightly. And as debris blows around town, it just collects there. So it's the owner's hope to take them out, but we all know about impervious area. It's all concrete and asphalt there. We don't want to just take those out without having kind of an understanding that, yes, we're going to put something back there because with the conservation district, because it's already impervious, we can put these five affordable townhomes there. But any questions or feedback for us?

Looks like a much improved area with your rendition.

Yeah. We spent some time walking up and down the street looking at the architectural features of other buildings because we didn't want to try to insult the old train building with that design concept. So we looked at a lot of the other buildings on the street to try to make sure that that thing doesn't look like it's a vinyl McMansion that got dropped out of the sky.

um and you know some of the renderings of those townhouses we saw earlier wouldn't necessarily blend with this area downtown so that was very important to the the rhodes family i i agree i think it would be a wonderful replacement for what's there and having new housing stock in that part of towns you know another great benefit yeah i think it's awesome yeah i like the brick i think it helps to blend it

And these two are bricked up halfway, not unlike what you were just talking about with the stone, just to try to bury those elevations. And then the middle and the two endings do have a cantilever that bumps out a little bit because the Rhodes family didn't want it to look like a barn.

Because they already have a barn here.

So we're not going to disturb a 140-year-old building. Part of this project also includes, just for your benefit, when the five units are completed, they're going to completely renovate these six. So we have an opportunity in the first six months to... relocate people over here either temporarily or permanently so that we because those were done in in 1990 and they're just tired they need new windows the the cabinets are just worn so but they have tenants that live in there that have been there 20 years So it's very important that they can't renovate that building because where do they send these folks for the four or five months that it's going to take to renovate it. But we'll do half and half on the other building. And during that process, they're going to do some repointing on the brick of that building because it's obviously, I think it's 130 years old, they told us.

Any idea what the affordability is going to be?

Well, that's a fun question. And we're doing one like this in Dover, and the affordability has been affected by the amount of money that that client has had to write to this man to get to the point where we could put a shovel in the ground. But we are trying to build them as affordably as we can so that they can serve five more families in that neighborhood. But the rent really is going to come down to what's the debt service on the property when it's completed. But we are in the downtown development district, so we can get that 20% back from the state. And there are some they'll waive 50% of our impact fees for the those use since we're in that district. So that's all those things adding up is going to help this immensely. But is it what will the exact rent have to be? We it's too early in the process to tell. So needs to be as affordable as those because those people have to afford those when they move next door for a period of time or permanently. So so I I didn't answer your question at all, did I?

But the goal is to keep them as affordable as construction allows? Yes.

Yes, sir. I had a question, Mr.

Chair, if I could. Actually, a comment and a question. So the question is, so I know you're trying to fit enough parking in the vicinity of these units. And I think in your concept plan, you had an overall goal of meeting the requirements of parking for the entire site, but it might be spread between the two areas. Is that right? Yes.

Yeah. And don't go by my rendering there of how many are in front of the units. But some of the the tenants in those units, if they have a car, would have to park over on the other side towards the corner that the town stole from Mr. Rhodes there. That corner, because it's rounded, takes away two parking spaces that we could have on that other side. But what we do know is There are two of the tenants in the existing building don't even own an automobile. So we anticipate that we'll be over parked for what the demand actually is.

And then my comment really is for the Planning Commission. If the applicants decide to move forward with a formal application, it would likely take the form of the conditional use application, mainly due to the fact that the residential piece wouldn't be permitted as such just by rights in the zoning district. So the traditional course of action would be that they would come to Planning Commission for a recommendation to council, and then it would be heard at the council level, just as an FYI.

Mr. Chairman is looking at me. I assume that maybe one reason this was aired out as a concept is there is some, it's not just going to be a simple site plan. There is going to be a land use decision that has to be made reference zoning, which would be conditional use.

Yeah, exactly. And we don't want to spend a whole bunch of their investment on engineering and then It's a hard no, and they've spent tens or $10,000 or $20,000, $30,000 to engineer something to the nth degree.

I think a conditional use is just the ability to shoehorn something in a district that doesn't otherwise allow it, but for a variety of reasons, which you can demonstrate or enumerate, makes it desirable. Reference, it's not going to be adverse to other properties. There's no opposition, and there's other reasons. It just makes sense. um and it can go forward like that just like a zoning change where it's going to be referred to planning commission they'll recommend their decision and it'll go up to council but i don't think you i don't think you're going to have to get full engineering for that purpose yeah that's that's our goal is to get these these yeses and attaboys um and then then we'll have him complete all the final details the conditional use ordinance will say you know you'll need final site planning Yeah. Yeah, like a subdivision or anything else. Looks like an improvement to me.

Absolutely.

Yeah, we think so as well. So this isn't here for a vote, but can we get an informal yes, we love it from the Planning Commission so I can report that to the owners?

I love it. Yes, I love it.

I love it.

Don't rely on that legally, okay? Right. Yes, there is an attorney in the room. Yeah. Yeah.

So, all right. Well, thank you very much for letting us have the time. We appreciate it.

Appreciate it. Good luck with the project.

Thank you.

All right. Our next order of business is the comprehensive plan five-year review. Ryan?

Good evening Planning Commission. So we are at the point where over the last number of months we have discussed issues related to revising the future land use map on behalf for our required five-year review of the comprehensive plan which was of course adopted in 2021 and as such in 2026 we are now required to report to the state either with a report of no change needed or actually to provide an amendment for consideration ultimately by town council. And so we have gone through a number of, like I said, a number of iterations of this map. This is the third. draft that we have, which was as of July 6th, 2026, which was based on both your own feedback throughout this process, as well as petitions from property owners that we solicited on our website and through the news media for people who might have been interested in having their future land use designation reconsidered. I will take us through a very brief recap of the things that we have changed or added from the existing map over time. We did look at a few areas here that we did update so there was a number of parcels in this vicinity here which were previously industrial but we actually in fact they're being used as residential so we chose to indicate that the future land use of these parcels on railroad avenue and carver street that they would be designated as single family We also designated the Savannah Grove parcel, which is formerly known as Kingfisher Apartments, which is currently under construction. This was previously designated as industrial future land use, and now it is designated as multifamily, which it, of course, is and will most likely be for the foreseeable future. We also looked at the Jaclyn Drive area here, if I can get a little closer here. So this area was indicated previously as business. Even though it's zoned for business, it was actually multifamily in nature. It's the townhome community there. So we did change that to multifamily as well. We did change a few properties that were remaining on North Bedford Street that were previously indicated as single family. But much like West Market Street, we did acknowledge that there is a an evolving nature of North Bedford that is being changed or considering properties that are being changed from single family to a business use, and in this area it's primarily professional office or residential office types of uses. We've seen some zoning changes in that area as of late, as we have seen on West Market Street. so we decided to make this area more consistent instead of having every other property maybe be single family we decided to make this all business uses we also changed according to a couple petitions we changed This area, sorry about that, of the Greenlee property, which is currently being, I guess, getting ready to be constructed with the residential single family leased community. The owner of that property has suggested that they have plans for business, business development of some sort, retail or restaurants or otherwise. And so that was you all decided that that was that you were amenable to that. So we included that change here from single family to business in this area. We also changed a number of properties outside of town boundary as well. We made several designation changes in this vicinity here from at the request of the owners here for a theoretical potential development or annexation in the future from rural agriculture, which is that light green color, to mixed residential. on this north and south side of seashore highway with a strip of commercial which is remember that highway commercial automobile oriented future land use designation we also changed this these two parcels here which uh also at the at the petition of an owner um for a potential mixed residential development application. Again, within the annexation area, so not within town limits. One other change we did look at here was the addition of this larger area here at the request of a development entity. As we mentioned before, the present annexation area ends right here. And so the request was to both include this in a future annexation area and to then redesignate it as a mixed residential area. This is an area that has received approval from town council to potentially be served by out of town water and sewer by the public facilities of Georgetown. Should that ever come to pass, that would be a process that we would have to work through. But again, of course, just being in the annexation area doesn't mean that you may ever get annexed. It is, of course, always up to the jurisdiction and the choice of planning commission and town council to be included or not within that area as well. And lastly, we made some very few changes for a few properties within the core of the downtown here, we changed this little parcel right here that was previously designated as business. but it was zoned residential and was residential, so we made that more relevant to what is being used today. We changed a couple other parcels in this vicinity here that were previously residential, surrounded by a sea of business. So we made that, again, we made that consistent. And then lastly, we changed, Actually, no, I believe that is it. I think that is a... a very specific accounting of everything that we changed. We did send out letters to property owners whose designations are being proposed to change in case they wanted to discuss it or have any questions or be aware of the change generally. As was noted in the letter, being in the future land use map itself, that that designation doesn't change anything about what you're allowed to do on your property today. or even tomorrow, though any future rezonings instigated by either the applicant, the property owner, or by the town need to be consistent with the future land use map overall. So that is where we are here today. And so generally I will hand it off to you all to discuss and to decide whether this is ready to be moved along with the process to recommend approval to town council, but first also to be viewed and reviewed by the Office of State Planning Coordination.

Any questions, comments from Brian?

I have a comment. We've worked several months on this, several months, and I do think this is our final recommendation and I support this as it goes.

My father had a business there years ago. Never lost his license or anything.

It went from commercial to industrial Now I get a letter saying you want to take it from industrial to residential. It's not saying that I'm not saying, how do we lose our value of something that was once there? Commercial is a lot more valuable than residential. It's a little more valuable or about the same as industrial. And it kind of just throws me off that we are going to be turned or got to fight for what my father worked for. All these years. I don't know what my family is going to really do with it. But to just say to turn it into a residential means, hey, if I don't want to build a home there, I have a home already. So what, I lose my property? Is that how we're going to do this? I don't know. I'm just asking. This is all new to us. So I want to find out what's going on. Because we got that letter. I got that letter. And it kind of threw me that, hey, we're going to take it. Because I came here years ago when Beecher was that way. It wasn't where you guys got it set in there. And I listened at the town then with a map saying that it was just temporary. And later it was changed. I sit right in the same room. So I'm not saying you guys are going to do that, but I'm just saying I don't want to lose the value of what our property is worth just to turn it into something else. Maybe I'm overstepping my boundaries, but I'm just talking how we feel about this. My family may want to put business down there. We never know, store, whatever. But you guys are going to change it to residential is not fair to us. That's all I'm saying. Thank you.

Just Joe, we are not changing the zoning of the property. We what we are talking about is the future. Right. Correct.

Do you think you can identify your property on the future land use map? Can I?

Yeah.

That little teeny triangle? That little teeny triangle right there. This was his business right here.

But what you own is the?

We own a boat, don't you? And then my wife owns that boat.

Okay.

And where's your house right now?

I live in San Diego.

Oh, okay.

This is my father's property.

Okay. That's all I'm saying. And we just don't want to move it to residential right now. Even though we're putting all the homes back here, those sides will go. That's not my intention.

And if I wasn't moving it, You'd have to combine them, yeah.

Yeah, you'd probably have some flexibility. What is the future land use that changed? What is it zoned now?

So it's zoned LI2, which is a limited industrial district. And so right now it's purple. The underlying future land use is industrial presently. Yes.

If it's zoned industrial, it is. I mean, from a practical matter, you couldn't get an industrial site plan there. Yeah, yeah. So there could be an argument that designating it residential could increase the value. I don't know if commercial, you could go there, too. But yeah, like the chairman said, this is just where they're thinking in the future they should go. If you or your family wanted to develop it and you think it's a reasonable development for that property, you certainly could bring an application in front of the board.

Any other questions or comments for Brian? Not? Is there a motion?

I'll make a motion to recommend that the town council approve the proposed amendment to the town of Georgetown's comprehensive plan by adopting the revised future land use map dated July 6, 2026, as presented, and submit said amendment to the Office of State Land Coordination for review as required.

I'll motion. Is there a second?

Second.

I'm sorry, before you vote, there does appear to be a Zoom, actually it's a Zoom question, if you don't mind my answering it, or I'll read it for everyone. Question, when possible, will the designation changing from business to residential have any impact on property taxes? No, not to our knowledge. The future land use map, again, is as a designation within the plan. And what will impact property taxes generally is if there's a reassessment of a property based upon any improvement to the use. And it's generally dependent upon the zoning as well. So if it's zoned, something that is more determinative of the potential value than the future land use designation. Sorry.

Yeah. So we had a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion to second. We'll take a roll call vote. Commissioner Weaver? Aye. Commissioner Allen? Aye. Commissioner Roach? Aye. Commissioner Locates? Aye. I've been at high as well. So thanks for the work that you put into doing this. And we can start talking about the new plan that's due in five years. Yes. Yeah.

We might as well start with the new plan right after we finish this. Yes. Great. Well, thank you very much. And yes, so we will submit that to the state. probably within the week. And they generally will come back with comments of some sort. If they are substantive, that might be worth reconsideration of some sort. I can bring it back in front of you all. But if they're relatively minor in nature, or the proposal straight to town council, if that makes sense.

All right, time for public comments. If anybody would like to share their opinion about everything that we've been discussing, feel free to take the podium. Hearing none, community development department report.

So I did want to briefly introduce Ray Kalmanowitz in the back. He is our University of Delaware City Management Fellow. And he is, I think he's just ended his undergraduate path and is now starting his graduate work, or more of the graduate work, and he's been doing a lot of great work for us in the community development department. He's been helping with some fiscal impact study templates that will help us sort of derive the value of future development in town and help to make decisions. He's also been helping us with some policy write-ups about food trucks and other potential cool things that I don't always have time to look at. So he's been very helpful so far. And he's actually local. He's from Millsboro originally. So I don't know. Ray, do you want to say anything?

Great.

Thank you. And overall, you know, we're of course looking at a lot of different applications. You've seen some of the things that you will continue to see likely next month and the ensuing months after. So we're, yeah, we're not taking much vacation during the summertime from the work that we do and we're happy to continue.

So I saw that Little Living got a demolition permit. Have you seen plans from them yet?

So we did officially receive their plan earlier this month, yes. So that has been dispatched to our reviewing engineers to move that reviewing process forward. I should also mention that at the council meeting, there was an ad hoc committee established to look at the cottage community zoning again. And so that committee, I think, will work with staff at the direction of council. And if there's any changes that emerge from that series of discussions, it will, of course, go the same path as any zoning amendment, first to Planning Commission for a recommendation and then to Town Council. But the demolition permit you referred to with Little Living was the, they're doing work on, they're removing the foundations of the old gas station that's there, and also doing soil remediation under the auspices of DENREC, or working with DENREC to, for remediation purposes, yes.

And just for the benefit of anybody who was not there Monday or did not listen to the meeting, council did approve a moratorium on reviewing additional plans under that zoning until that committee meets and makes whatever recommendations that they will be making to us and to the town. As part of that review, does the town have the ability to pull a list of properties that have one acre or more in size?

Yes. Yes, we can do that through our geographic information systems capabilities. Our mapping software, yes, we're quickly able to use the county parcel data that's available to run some analyses on. How many properties would qualify under one acre or greater, two acres or greater, et cetera. We could set any criteria that we want.

It'd be good to see that information. I know they're going to ask for that information.

Sure, yes. I am sure as well. We will be prepared for producing results of that nature.

Then sort of along those lines, the pilot program that we're in for the state for zoning review?

Oh, yes. The Senate Joint Resolution 8 Land Use and Zoning Reform Technical Assistance Pilot Program. Yes, that is correct.

So where do we stand with that?

That's a great question. We've only met twice, and that has been largely to do an inventory of our zoning ordinance specifically, but also all of our other regulatory documents such as our design guidelines, that part of which you saw in action today regarding facade designs and also our design and construction standards as well, which does impact development. So generally speaking, the program was meant to look at how to improve the stock or how to increase the stock of housing generally and to also look at any potential zoning or other impediments on a local level to the provisions. the provisioning of that that housing so the guidance that and assistance that we get under that program does that come from the state or have they hired consultants or do we yes good other good questions uh so the state has hired three firms three separate firms that are working with over i think it's ten it's nine municipalities and census accounting and so we are working with smart growth america which is an organization that's dedicated to the idea of smart growth types of development developing communities in certain sort of old-fashioned ways much like you know the town of Georgetown is sort of historically developed And so they are zoning experts and they will actually be writing proposed zoning to fulfill the program's intent. And then at the end of the day, of course, the town will be required to either adopt or not adopt or modify potentially those changes. So they're being paid by the state, but we are, we're the client, I guess, in this case. There will be a public process as we develop the scope. We've identified a number of things at the outset that we needed to look at and change or to at least do research on. It's added a new dimension because of the passage of SB 23, which is the affordable housing. So we're all sort of learning about what that means. So we actually think that this, our work in the pilot program will actually change a little bit from what we first at the outset were looking to do because now we have this state law that we have to figure out how to meet the requirements.

If I may.

Sure.

The SB 33, Senate Substitute 1 for SB 33, it's a beast actually. But you may read an article a week from today, the Sussex Planning Commission had two pretty large clusters or subdivisions and they just pulled them from public hearing thinking it might not even be necessary to have public hearings if you meet a portion of that. So the affordable housing thing, they're just putting the pedal to the metal and kind of saying you can avoid public hearings if you have meet the criteria that you have affordable housing. Obviously the devil's in the details or the benefits in the details, but that's how significant it kind of is. I read, I went and buzzed the bill and there's a lot to it. with a housing commission . But it addresses all municipalities that have over 2,000 people and the county as well. I don't know if Brian's looked at it carefully, but that's something we have to keep an eye on.

Yes, and I think maybe luckily, you could say, is that some of the more restrictive elements of the bill do apply only to counties. There are certain things that actually change the way that they are allowed to approve certain types of developments. I believe, and we're still analyzing this, of course, but We believe that the parts that refer to municipalities, a lot of the requirements are within your comprehensive plan. So luckily I think we just made it under the gun from having to adapt our comprehensive plan to these new requirements. So basically it requires an affordable housing plan and you need to identify methods by which you will increase the supply of affordable housing which actually is sort of ill-defined in the state, in the bill. So, again, we will continue to learn how to operationalize that, you know, because what's affordable to one person is not affordable to another, but you can't change a house to make it more affordable generally, significantly anyway. So it will involve a number of strategies that you sort of pick from a menu, a list. Much like what we're actually working through with the land use reform program, which is you could implement different types of housing, more diverse options for housing. Cottage communities actually is one of the methods that you could utilize. using pre-approved housing plans that cut down on design and permitting time for people. So there's any number of them. It might be worth our time to actually have a discussion or a presentation by someone here at one of our planning commission meetings so that we get a better sense of what's ahead of us.

So what are we hoping, a comprehensive review of the entire code to try to bring it into?

In terms of this just effort that we're on now, I mean, yes, so that is, it's primarily focused on housing, so it won't focus on a lot of other things, but there's a lot to work with. There's a lot to improve about our code. Luckily, I've made a huge list of nice things that would be good to change or to tweak early in my start here. We had an audit already ready to go, you know, things that bother us about the code. So from quality of life improvements for administering the code all the way to, you know, significantly improving, you know, the product that might emerge from a development.

All right. I've asked a lot of questions. Any other questions, comments for Brian?

Oh, there's a comment.

Okay.

So I wasn't at the council meeting, unfortunately, so I can't say specifically what they said.

I think you're referring to the moratorium that planning is not to review any additional cottage community plans until that working group comes back with their recommendations. It's unfortunately, it was not. worded very well Monday night.

I'm not really prepared to answer that presently, apart from what has been stated at the council meeting.

I wasn't at the meeting either. You're correct in that generally you can't take action that aren't on the agenda. But there are exceptions to that. But it's sort of a high bar. So I don't know what they did. Or I'd have to look at the minutes. And I don't know if it just applies to any new applications that come in, I would assume.

Yes.

Yeah. So that's when it may come to a head. Well, I would expect they wouldn't answer that. And if something comes in, they might give me a call. I don't know. Seriously, none of us really know exactly what they did unless I read them. Or maybe we do. Maybe the chairman does. But that's when a decision would have to be made whether they can hear it or not. I don't have enough facts as the counsel for the Planning Commission to comment unless I see what they did.

Not to our knowledge.

Again, I'm not prepared to say that at this time.

No, does this have anything to do with Springboard specifically?

Yes.

Okay, I should tell the commission that I've counseled the Springboard entities sometimes on their governance and things like that not related to the council. So I couldn't answer that question just because we've had a relationship in the past. I don't have anything that I'm representing them now. But I think in general I have no problem commenting know you would have to submit something before you'd have to bring it to a head you know that's how these things work but i that's all i think we can tell you

what at this point we we don't have an answer for you so we'll have to consult with the town's council to figure out what exactly monday's um approval did yeah you're not going to get an answer tonight from us or for me anyway not for me either but i understand where you're coming from especially since i know you know i understand where you're coming from so All right. Were there any other questions or comments for Brian? If not, that's our agenda. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. We're adjourned. Thank you very much.