Town Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, really? Cool. Okay.

Well, good evening. We'll get started in one minute. If everybody will check your phones for us and make sure that they're on silence, please. We greatly appreciate it. Here we go.

Good evening. Uh, tonight is Monday, November 10th. We're at 39 the circle. It is 6:45 p.m. We're here for a public hearing. It's uh, case number 202510. Gene. Members of council, public hearing this evening is case number 25, 2025-10 dealing with 3 and 7 Parsons Lane, identified as Sussex County Tax Parcels 135-15.17-121.00 and 135-15.17-122.0. This is for a comprehensive plan amendment to the future land use map as well as a resone application. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Christianberry.

Good evening. Ken Christenberry with Axiom Engineering. Do you know the slides that we sent available?

There it is. Well, that's the stuff that I sent in.

That looks like what your your staff may have put together. I can go ahead and get started. Uh this is a very simple application. There are two properties on Parson's Lane. uh three and seven I believe are the addresses where the intention is to reszone the properties to urban business. Uh the properties are the the visuals I want to show you are the zoning map because the properties are surrounded by other commercial districts. To our north is highway commercial. To our east is neighborhood business. To our west across Parsons Lane is more highway commercial. Southwest of that is urban business. And urban business is what we would like to zone these properties to. the the owner is here, Mr. Rodus. He is interested in doing a small retail grocery store on these properties. Uh we have provided in our cover letter, which I don't know if you all get a chance to read through those things before we get here or not, but uh you know, some idea of a similar type of business that he's seen in Millsbro that's similar to what he would like to do on this location. Um phase one would just be to use that existing building that shows up in that photograph and kind of remodel it and then u phase two would involve an expansion. And

is that the 10 garage that's sitting there? The reb one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yep. he'd be remodeling that but using that same footprint, trying to keep his permitting simple with things like storm water and all that because there's really not enough land to do a really elaborate engineering project on on the property. Um, but anyway, the the property appears to be appropriate for UB1 simply because of surroundings. So, uh, hopefully we can get the zoning map and other things that I submitted up on screen so you can see. Do you all have a copy of my package that was submitted in? Very good. So you again you can tell from the subject property uh both on your comprehensive land use map and on your zoning map uh the property is surrounded on essentially all sides except to the south. The south is residentially zoned and those parcels are vacant. Um don't have any idea if there's any uh intention to pull a building permit on those, but those are vacant and they're adjacent to the ball fields. Uh the ball fields are actually zoned uh UB1 across the street. The ones to our south are on land that's zoned residential. Very good. So uh you're going to need to advance to the next slide to get closer view. That's a very, you know, broadbrush view. When you go to the next slide, you'll see the legend and then you'll see as you get in closer. So the actual parcels, these two yellow parcels right here where we're up against pink on the north and east, that's neighborhood business. The bright red is highway commercial. That's also true across the street. And then the the blue is UV one where the ball fields are, then that's the zoning district that we're asking for. So, we're not asking to match the most intense zoning that we're adjacent to, which would be the highway commercial, but the same uh zoning has has been applied to the ball fields. Uh that's your that's your future land use map. Let's go ahead and look at the zoning map, which is essentially parallel. Uh so, if

you could go ahead and advance the slide. That's just satellite image. So you can see we're directly across the street from that parking lot where the Dollar General and the Little Caesar Pizza is and all that, but we're facing directly into those and the very edge of where the ball fields are. Next slide, please. That's what it looks like or the property that's on the right of of this uh this street view. Uh next one again, that's kind of what you'd see leaving our property. Uh, next slide. That red building there is the one that would be renovated for phase one of the of the retail grocery. Uh, next slide. Uh, this just tax map. You can go uh go ahead and advance to the next one. Just giving you the context. Uh, so there are two buildings. You know, the one that's here is that that red garage will be phase one. That house there will be for phase two at some point in the future. And you can advance again. Keep go ahead. Another one. Another one. Again, these are just tax maps. Give you an idea of the context. Properties were surveyed a couple years back. And those surveys were submitted as part of the record as is required for a zoning application. Uh the next slide is the survey of the other piece of ground. Uh both are owned by Mr. Rous, one through an LLC and one that he owns personally. And obviously if it were consolidated into one project, you'd have a common ownership. So this is your actual zoning map. And again, very similar to your future land use map. When you advance to the next slide, you'll see that we are, you know, we are asking for UV1, which is shown in orange on your map. We're adjacent to HC, which is the bright pink, and we're adjacent to UV2, which is neighborhood business. So when you go

to the next slide, you'll see what we we are surrounded with. So, we barely touched urban residential on our southern edge and those two parcels that are next to us in green, they are vacant right now. Uh, we did go through your planning commission uh the public hearing there, there was no comments for or against from any neighbors. Uh, and the commission did vote unanimously to recommend approval of this application. Uh, and with that, that concludes my presentation. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to uh address them. Council, any questions at this time? I think Christina's online, too. She had to do some visiting, so she's online. So, Tony, anything?

No. No. Okay. Uh, the the the old house will be tore down. Is that what you're saying? That that the garage will be renovated for phase one. Phase that'd be phase two. Phase two happens. That would be a tear down and rebuild. Mr. wrote us why don't you come to the microphone and introduce yourself and just let them know did I misrepresent anything or did everything I say line up with what you intend to do that you're going to renovate the red building and in the future probably tear down the house and and expand that's right okay Mr. Antonio Rotus is the owner of Okay. both properties.

We'll open it up to the public. Is there anybody with uh anything positive or negative they'd like to say about this? Step up to the mic if you do. If not, this will be uh stayed open uh for two weeks. We'll have a first reading and then the following two weeks after that, we'll have the second reading and hopefully approval or disapproval, whatever the council decides to do. December, uh one meeting in December. only one meeting in December, so we'll have to go to January. Okay. Okay. Let us know. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you very much for coming in.

If everybody rise, we'll uh get started with the regular meeting. Please. Pledge allegiance and Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Pastor Neil,

eternal God, we thank you for your love, your conscious mercy. Lord, we thank you God for who you are. We thank you God for allowing us to come here one more time to discuss town business. We ask you God to bless us God. Give her insight and wisdom. Lord, we ask you God to also look upon the the injured uh gentleman Remster Ralph Clawson. Father God, touch him God and his family. Father God, look upon him. In Jesus name we pray. We thank you. We love you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Be seated.

Well, council, hopefully you had a chance to look at the agenda. If there's no uh deletions or additions, I'd entertain a motion to accept. So moved. Thank you, Penal. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Tony. All in favor signify saying I. I. Opposed? So carried. Council members, hopefully you've had a chance to look at the October 27th town council minutes. Uh if there's no deletions or additions, I'd entertain a motion to accept. Thank you, Christine. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Eric. All in favor signify saying I. I.

Opposed. So carried. Before we get to council members comments, I made the statement last uh meeting and I want to continue it is uh we'll have no attacks on individuals. Uh the first time will be a warning. The second time you will be asked to leave. We're going to bring back some dignity and respect to the way people should be acting. So with that, we're going to open it up to council members comments at this time. And Eric, if you lead for us, I appreciate it. Uh, sure. I just welcome everybody and uh, thank you for coming out and hope you got your heater service because it's going to get cold. Thank you, Eric Pendle.

It's good seeing everyone here this evening. Want to thank Councilman Neil for reaching out to the fire department. Um, a week ago today, Ralph Clawson was directing traffic for us and accidentally got hit by another vehicle. Um, we went and up to Christian yesterday and he's actually doing better. He's got a long road, but we definitely need your prayers because I think he's 79 years old and what he went through was unbelievable. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, Penel Christina. Good evening.

Is that all? Yep. Okay, Tony. Just glad to see everybody here tonight. It's uh it's just a blessing to see people safe and sound tonight and I thank Pena for that good report on Mr. Clawson. Thank you. Yeah, I understand he's gone through a couple surgeries already and he's got a couple more to go through. It didn't sound good. Uh heard that it was a high-speed hit is what it was. I don't know. Um, they're still doing the investigation, but Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry to hear that about Ralph, so I'm thinking about him. So, let's move on. Uh, memorandum of understanding, uh, disaster housing assistance. Jean,

uh, members of council. Item number six on the agenda is a memorandum of understanding dealing with disaster housing assistance program. This is a joint effort between um selected m municipalities Lewis, Milton, Georgetown, the Institute for Public Administration at the University of Delaware and the Delaware State Housing Authority. This is um outlining the work between the two the municipal partner and what the university is going to do. There's three sessions we'll work through and it's identifying ways we can um prepare and implement for a um disaster should we have one and um rebuild from it as quickly as possible. Pleasure of the mayor and counsel.

Questions, comments, council. If none, I'd uh entertain a motion to move forward with the memorandum of understanding. Yeah, I'll make the motion. Thank you, Eric. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Christine. Thank you. All in favor signify saying I. I. Opposed? So carried. Public works agreement. Uh Isaac's Farm Gan.

Okay. Members of council, item number seven on the agenda is a public works agreement addendum between the town of Georgetown and the Isaac's farm. This addendum is dated the 10th day of November between 79 GTtown LLC, the developer and the town of Georgetown. The developer and a town entered into a public works agreement for the Isaac's farm. That was agreement 2021-00003, town project number 208-24, phase 1. and the town approved the original public works agreement on September 10, 2021. And whereas article 16 section 16.1 specifies as required under town code developer will provide town prior to issuance of a building permit or any infrastructure improvements a bond payable to the town of Georgetown which represents an amount equal to 150% of required improvements as reviewed and approved by the town engineer and conditioned by their satisfactory completion within the time specified in the construction permit. And whereas article 16 section 16.2 2 specifies that in accordance with section 4.4 of the agreement, the developer shall submit [snorts] a written 2-year maintenance bond prior to the town's release of the completion guarantee. The amount of the bond shall be 10% of the amount of the completion guarantee. The two-year maintenance period shall begin after all improvements required by the agreement have been completed and accepted by the town. At the end of the two-year maintenance period and satisfactory performance of all improvements, the maintenance bond shall be released. And now, therefore, the parties agree to as follows. The completion guarantee bond as outlined in article 16 section 16.1 can be released based on the work completed which has been inspected and accepted by the town. Number two, the developer has given a two-year maintenance bond for $60,000. And number three, at the end of the two-year maintenance period [snorts] and satisfactory performance of all improvements, the maintenance bond shall be released. Pleasure of the mayor and council.

Council questions, comments. Is this is this an automatic uh two-year at the end of two years? It's just automatic given back as long as long as everything's satisfied. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. [snorts] Thank you, Eric. With that, I'd entertain a motion to uh accept the public works agreement. So moved. Thank you, Eric. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Tony. All in favor signify saying I. I. Opposed. Let's do roll call. Ward one. I. W two. I. W three. I. W four. I.

And I'm an I. 5. Thank you very much, council. Moving forward. Uh, Springboard, Delaware, Georgetown Navigational Center update. So, thank you everyone. Thank you, council. Uh, my name is Jud Malone. I'm the executive director of Springboard Delaware. And one of these goes in one direction, I guess. So, [clears throat] uh, tonight we want to give you another update on what's going on in the village. Uh just for a little historical reference, this is the 12th time we've made an appearance here. I'm [clears throat] glad to do it. But just some of you who probably haven't seen us a while think we've never been here, but that's not true. We've been here for a very long time, year after year. And so tonight though, I'm going to introduce you to more of our people. Um, and then we're going to go through some of the the numbers we've been researching on the still unsheltered homeless and some more information on the pallet shelter in its operations. Before I do that though, I'd like to introduce uh our new board chairman, Mr. Tom Ogden. One more thing. Mr. Mayor, with your permission, we can hand out these QR codes if people want to

Yes, sir. um scan and Yes, sir. give us their information. We'll get, you know, to connect with us. Yes, sir. Mr. Ogden, how are you, sir? Well, I didn't realize that scary picture was going to be up there. Uhhuh. See, we [clears throat] we got your SCI picture.

I'm sure you do. Good evening, Mayor and members of council. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Tom Ogden, as Judge said, and I serve as the Springboard Delaware um chair chairman of the board of directors. I'm newly retired to Sussex County. Until January of 2025, I served the mayor of Wilmington as deputy chief of staff and neighborhood development director. It was in my role as neighborhood development director that I came to know Jeff Ronald and Jud Malone, co-founders of Springboard Delaware. During my time working in the mayor's office, I listened to regular complaints, concerns, and suggestions of what to do with the homeless situation in the city of Wilmington. Um, when I learned about Springboard, I was blown away. Very frankly, just completely blown away what what's going on down here in Georgetown. Most organizations, and there are 200 of them in the state of Delaware that are working in some capacity with the homeless, which which was a number that amazed me. um they admire the problem and what Springboard is doing is something different and that something different is working. Um I was honored to be asked to be on the board and further honored when I was elected the board chair. Thanks to the vision and leadership of the good people of Georgetown, we are on to something here in Delaware. Uh I expect that our second navigation center will open sometime in the next 90 120 days in the city of Wilmington. So

that'll be the second. The hope is since this is a model that works that we will expand the model to every corner of Delaware. There are 1,500 homeless people living, you know, unsheltered in the state of Delaware. And that's a working number. We don't truly know how many there are, but you know, the need is great and thanks to Georgetown, we're we're off on the right foot. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Dogney.

Okay, just a just a quick history lesson how how we got started. Uh we are on First State Community Action Agency property and they are our our main partner and supporter uh in this venture. Um, if you can see on their property there, uh, their main headquarters building is toward the lower right hand corner there. The property where the current pallet village is is in the back. And you can see somewhat from that box there that that's a pretty was a pretty raw piece of land when we took it over before [clears throat] we opened the village. While we're still under construction, we worked with First State for six months through hot weather all the way through cold weather trying to give some relief to the homeless community and also to gather information about who they were so we could make decisions about who would be our first participants in the in the pallet village. So, we fed them a heavy breakfast and a heavy lunch every Sunday. uh first state staff and springboard staff um working diligently um

[clears throat]

uh uh Bruce Wright, you can see the back of his head there, he's a master on the griddle. Um, so over time we really gained the trust of the community and by December I mean by January of 2023 we we filled we opened and filled the pallet village to full capacity and have operated basically at full capacity ever since. When we started construction we started with a raw piece of land uh that it had to be completely cleared buildings demolished. We ordered pallets. Thank you, town council, for that your grant allowed us to purchase those cabins. They arrived on site and were assembled in two days with the help of a lot of good contractor workers uh as well as the support of Ruth Riggs King representative at that time Ruth Riggs King and Charlie Timmons who was the head of the association of builders and contractors. So great group of people. They knew how to use tools. the pallet cabins bolted together quickly. Uh so it was a great it was a great experience. So where does the money come from? [clears throat] Money for nonprofits usually comes from private sources and from public sources. So from our case, our private funding foundations primarily Longwood, but others as well have been the have been a lot of our our funding u either the uh the Highark Blueprint or Healthy Communities Delaware U have given us substantial funding to help us with our wraparound service coordination and efforts like that. The philanthropic community has been enormously helpful to us. U and we're very proud of of the work and the support we've gotten there. Others you can see banks, corporations,

churches have turned out to be very strong supporters not only with cash donations but substantial in kind donations, bicycles, clothing, um you know um and on and and food, public financing. When we [clears throat] started out, we knew that we had to raise the money privately to stand it up, get it operating, and demonstrate whether it was going to work or not. And based on whether or not that is successful or not, in order to be sustainable over the long term, would require public funding. almost anybody you talk to who's involved with nonprofits, nonprofit fundraising, capacity building, you know, especially in the area of services to to the homeless population. Raising funds entirely from private sources is practically impossible. Public funding is critical. Former Governor Carney, as he was ending his administration, secured for us an emergency fund from state funds that convinced Longwood to continue to fund us so that we were able to fund operations for this past year. In the meantime, we have been outreaching to the state government. We have secured a contract through an RFP process to operate this and it's a renewable contract for four years. So after three years of operation starting out as a private experiment now moving into a public private joint venture with the state we are making progress as an organization. and we're brand new, but we have every year we have an independent auditor who finance who

reviews our books have found no they don't ever give you praise. They always tell you you didn't do anything wrong. Uh but in on their review they found no need for any modifications to how we conduct our business. This is a snapshot of how we're organized. Uh Trish Hill you'll hear from tonight is our navigation center operations director. Uh uh Key Good is here. Stand up. Raise your hand. He is our site supervisor. We have a food service manager. Uh the resident steward program supports both the site supervisor and our food services uh providing uh for a stipen uh provide and and a demonstration that they're prepared to be responsible that they can you know that they're learning job skills and they're doing an incredible job for us. um you know with community watch, with food prep, um we are going to continue that program of giving back. We are going to expand volunteer hours for everyone else that is not full-time working uh to actually go out and give support to the community. Uh if you drive past the library, the Georgetown library, you'll notice that substantially overgrown landscaping has been removed and it's been the sites being prepared with mulch and gravel for spring planting of new new landscaping. Um and our some of our people um were there pulling the weeds out and helping out. Okay, I want to go through the uh this is a slide from our September 23rd presentation of 2024 where we stated that we were starting to count the homeless population that we saw that it was increasing. We saw that

it was going to be a problem. We didn't know why. We we felt like we needed to have more numbers uh in order to figure out how to approach it. And so we formed a an organization called Street Outreach Services, SOS. Uh and and our our she's been out almost a year now. And we've had an extensive survey that we conduct asking all kinds of questions about their status, their where they live, where they used to live, why they move here. Um what are your health concerns? Um and from that data with the appropriate confidentialities ensured we want other organizations to participate in trying to help them and deliver services even though they're still out there unsheltered. We need to improve the coordination of services any way we can. So Lorett has right so far been our primary partner and we meet with them on a regular basis. They go through the list and they identify people with, you know, needs that they can address and they work that list actively since the time we started to count. Um, and it's called a by-name list. And that's different than if you've ever heard of the point in time count that's done every year. That's a count that's only done one time a year. Our count is done every day. And so we are constantly trying to identify everyone who's homeless in Georgetown and in the county. So although we've spent the most of our time in Georgetown and the numbers reflect that, we have spent some amount of time in these other areas. Um, don't treat this as a final account that Georgetown's count is that much higher than everyone else's. I think it is substantially higher, but we haven't had

a chance to spend as much time in the rest of the county as we've spent in Georgetown. So, we have a much more thorough list here. So, where do they come from? Everybody's wildly speculating about how far away these people are coming to Georgetown. What the records show out of state about 33 people and in Maryland is the primary outofstate place where they would have come from. Most of the rest of them are inconsequential. You know, somebody from Virginia, one person. Uh Oklahoma, one person. Now, not shown on here is when they moved because some of these that moved from these other places, if you look at how long they've been in Georgetown, it's been 10 years, okay? Or or whatever. Okay? So, don't translate this into the, you know, the cohort that's coming in all at once. Wilmington, 13 people, Kenton County, 28 people, Sussex County, 97. Notice how the numbers keep coming down. You know, closer you get to Georgetown. Research has shown that the homeless population is not that mobile, is not nearly as mobile as we tend to think it is. The data reflects that. There are lots of reasons why it's not easy to just at a whim move around. Also, we asked the question, well, let me get through this first. So this is just a general snapshot of our homeless, not our pallet village population, but the unsheltered population that's out there. This gives you, you know, their age groupings, race, um, gender, veteran status. Probably what, 20, 10, 15 years ago, there was a very effective program that was really address veteran homelessness.

You can see the dividends of that additional resources and additional help had a huge impact on homeless veterans. It still even though the programs may not be as high fidelity now as they were then, there still you can see the result of how few veterans are homeless. There are some and we definitely want to help them, but understand that resources matter and they've always had more resources than the general population. Documentation is very important. Without documents, you're stopped from getting a license. You're stopped from getting a job. Um, and so, uh, we we spend a lot of hours, uh, tracking down birth certificates and other ID. So, getting back to how long have people been homeless. Now, this is focusing not on the whole county, but just on Georgetown population. How long have they been homeless? If you'll notice, the majority have been homeless longer than a year, sometimes more than three years. We've got instances of 10 or 20 years of homeless. It's just unimaginable to me. Those right there when we talk about being a low barrier shelter, we're trying to get out those people because they are they need the most help and without it they cost us the most money because they go to the ER, they have they take ambulance, they they they go they're they're in our jail system. uh those impacts are on the almost an order of magnitude compared to when they get help and wraparound services and a place to live. Okay, now I'm going to turn it over to Trish. I know a lot of you are interested in

our outcomes and so Trish is here to discuss those and m Mr. Mayor, with your permission, if anybody wants to Q&A during this, we're fine with that. Yes, sir. Can we ask you a question? Sure. I guess so. I'm at discretion of that. I just the numbers as far as where they were coming from did not match with the prior slide. So, are there a number of unknown? So, you had Yes. Yes, there are. Okay. That wasn't included in the where they come from. You can move. Well, yeah, you're right. That would have made the numbers add up. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for pointing that out.

I have a question. During the election last time, you I guess were quoted on the radio or they copied you on the radio. You said it was five homeless people in the town and we sent out some people and they come across like 45 by 20 minutes. So, how can we believe these numbers today? Well, first of all, I had absolutely no recollection of ever saying anything about five only five homeless.

Well, it was either you or the mayor and he was on the board at the time. So, we we we questioned that. And two, how are we going to help people? I know recently we've changed, but we put drug blockers right at the gate of so they they could put their drugs in. We're not helping people get it get themselves straight. I mean, I'm hopeful for helping people, but damn it, I'm tired of being kicked in the ships. Um, when you have drug lockers there and then they can walk in and they can sleep it off and then good friend of mine 25 foot away is watching drug deals at your gates and and and this and and then we met with Bod and he recognized the vehicle that I explained to the chief about um you know that that vehicle was at the gate and was dealing.

Yes. So, it's it's just hard, you know, when you throw numbers at us. Um, yes, I can see what's happened to my town and I am not um very skeptical, just to put it that way. So, I can answer a few of those questions. Sure.

Um, as far as the lockers, the lockers were meant for a lot more than um any illegal paraphernalia. They were meant for the individuals who were coming in when we first started. They were, you know, there were possessions there that they couldn't have. We're talking like little pocket knives, things like that. There were a lot of things. Now, as we went on, you know, we were able to get more and more acclimated with people. Those lockers have been gone since last year. I can tell you that we had people from the town come help us get rid of those lockers. So, this isn't a new thing that the lockers have been gone. They've been gone for quite a while. And what we realized was

But you've been there what, three years? So, they stayed there two years.

Yes. What we realized was they weren't even being used. I have cameras that were posted right on those have were the entire time. they they weren't used, which was one reason we took them out. We realized that some of the other things that we were doing to help people get treatment, to help people get the things they needed was working and the lockers just didn't need to be there. And uh as far as your questions about the numbers, I have posted very detailed um number like statistics [clears throat] things that you know you really would have to read to be able to decipher but they're there. The proof is in those numbers. As far as the numbers of um the things that SOS is doing, SOS is its own organization. They partner with us, but they are not us. They have really detailed things that they go through, questionnaires that they go through with each person, signatures that they sign off on an iPad.

Did you have other questions? No, I mean it's um Okay. Thank you. Numbers number there. question. Sure. Um, what I'm really interested in, you have some numbers up there, they're somewhat depressive. However, they don't tell the full story. For example, 48% of those with substance abuse disorders receive treatment. How successful was the treatment? Did it are they now living? what what's what was the outcome of both the substance abuse and the mental health treatment that these people have received?

Certainly. So, we have some people who have done very well and we have some people that we've sent three, four or five times. That's just I'm just being perfectly straight with you that recovery is not linear. There are people trying [clears throat] to break down the 48% to be successfully through a treat that kind of right. So we do have we do have somebody that's going to speak for us tonight who has Okay, go ahead. I'm interested in knowing now that you operated for a couple of years. you have a certain uh model to operate under

and I'm interested in knowing now that you've been out there for three years and you're looking at all the information and the data how specifically have you had to modify this program. What changes have you made either in admissions discharge criteria, you know, who do you have to terminate from services? How has that That's the kind of information I would like to know after three years of operation. How have you changed this program and what are the significant outcomes that you're looking at now and how different are they from when you first started?

Sure. So, that's one of the things I actually came up to talk about. So, thank you for that lead in. Um, there's a [clears throat] lot of things that we have had to change and that's based on learning. us learning for the individuals who needed our services and learning from them what best helped them what best suited them what they were best able to um recover and grow. So, as far as the admissions, one thing we noticed was that there were a lot of people who were in Georgetown who were had some severe vulnerabilities um that weren't necessarily in the beginning um seeking out the village. So one thing we did was we um use that SOS data that our that part our our partners um have data and we have a vulnerability scale. So it's it's called the housing first scale but it's more like an espedat assess that risk.

We well we assessed all kinds of risks. We assess um what makes them more vulnerable in the community such as um do they have severe medical issues? Do they have chronic conditions? Are they chronically unhoused? Do they have um significant mental health issues? Things like that. Um do they have a lack of uh ability to um connect with care? Those are all things that the vulnerability scale measures and that is something that has been very helpful to us in finding the people that need us most. Now in doing that we also have a lot of some of the hardest individuals with the most um chronic conditions to be able to help them move towards housing. Um but we do that because that's our that's our mission. is to find the housing for the most people um at the most risk. So that's one of the things we changed in admissions. And um so let me move on to the the basic uh um breakdowns of things. Um the national average for participants moving into permanent housing is actually about 25 to 35%. So we're doing okay there. Not that we don't need to improve, but we are doing much better. Um, you know, with the housing crisis, things like that that are going on, it it makes it a little bit challenging, but we're working. We're finding ways we're helping people become reunited with their families. That's helped a lot. Um, also to discuss the exit data. So, you'll see that um I don't know if it's on there, but sorry, it's not on there, but um we are

a little bit under the um national average. Not a lot, but a little bit. So, um we have um about I think 35% Don't quote me on that because it's not on this either. I don't know what I've done. I apologize. But um our numbers are about 5 to 7% off of the um average good, you know, like in benchmarks you have good, you have excellent, you have, you know, measures. And we're a little low. We're just a little bit off of that now. That has been improving. That's one of the things we've changed.

Sure. Yes. So, um, when you're making goals for housing, uh, and moving people into permanent housing, trying to, um, keep people from going back into homelessness. Um, there are there are goal markers that you want to meet. And, uh, one of the goal markers that we probably the only goal marker that we are not meeting is the exit to homelessness. And that's not a huge u there's not a huge difference but it is about 7%. Now most of that happened early on I'd say in the first six months. Um right now we are improving that each and every month. So each and every month we have less people that are exiting to homelessness. Um so we started a little behind the eightball. We were exiting people a little too fast. Um, and since then we've learned ways to help, you know, with motivational interviewing, things that help try to bring people around, give them second chances, third chances, whatever we need to do to help them kind of get back on their feet and get moving towards housing and and progress. Um, so we we do have a requirement now, another change we've made, which is only a mild change because we've always expected people to work towards their housing goals, but now we have a a set you must have income. Within three months of the time that you enter the village, you must at least be engaging in looking for employment, working on your social security disability, you know, getting some kind of income so you can move yourself forward. Um, and the documents I I have seen or heard people say that, you know, because

only such and such 156 people receive documents that the rest aren't American. I don't know where that came from, but I can promise you that these are individuals who um have needed they've lost their ID, they've lost their birth certificate, they've lost their social security card, and they are now um in need in order to get housing in order to get employment to be able to um get that identification. So, we assist them in getting their social security, getting their birth certificate so they can go get their ID and get that replaced. uh the 97% with mental health that have received care. The reason that seems a little high and is a little high but is because um DSAM asked us to make sure everybody had uh screening for mental health um that we felt you know needed to be screened. So that 97% is actually of the individuals who are screened and proven to have mental health issues. So that basically says 3% of the people who we screened who we have a diagnosis for said no thank you.

How many of those have both disorders? About uh I'll look it up and get it to you but I I believe it to be about 20% if not a little more.

That is probably 25. I'll I'll find out for sure and email you with that. Um, you know, I've also had conversations with several people in the community. I feel like we've had good conversations. You know, we may not we may not see eye to eye, but we're all trying to get to this middle ground. And I appreciate those people that have had those conversations who have had that interest. I appreciate the people who came Saturday to see the village who wanted to know kind of what was going on. So um thank you for those that even though you may be on the other side of the spectrum as us as far as you know um your beliefs and etc. I thank you for coming together and at least having conversations so that we can try to make things work well.

Yes started I think the average day would be months and then it was extended to six months. What is the forecasted individuals? What's the length of time? Are you giving them a length of time?

So, what we're trying to do is get them moved into housing as quickly as we can. However, we do not wish to throw people out on the street who are working very hard and just because they're not at that level yet where they can, you know, achieve their housing goals. We do not intend to throw them out on the street at that point when they're working very hard towards that, but they may have some barriers that we're still working on.

Average length of stay is four months. That's average length of stay. I have a question. The uh the 40% of the participants that go out, how many of them actually come back from supportive housing or just relieve permanent housing and then come back to being homeless?

Sure. I think the people who have come back from actually being housed is about four people. Now, we have had several people who have come back who were who had left under unfortunate circumstances back to homelessness. Um, we have we have brought people back who have gone to rehab or gone to some kind of treatment program and um who are trying to make their lives you know more stable. We have brought individuals back but of the peaceful of that 40% I believe it to be four but I can get an exact number but I think four is about right. Okay.

Okay. Next, I want to use uh introduce Bonnie Winchester. She is one of our founders along with Key and Trish. They're are original people. There you are. Uh so, she's going to tell us a little bit about who she is and what she does and to the degree you feel comfortable, you might talk about how you've come up about where you are. Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? [clears throat] Now, I've written something down, but feel free to ask me anything afterwards. Um, and just bear with me. It's been a while since I've spoke in such a a public forum. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Bonnie Winchester and I serve as the community navigator with Springboard Delaware. I specialize in housing and employment. I resided on K's camp road in Millsboro for the past three years and prior to that on Bram Hall Street here in Georgetown for seven years. This community played a pivotal role in my recovery. My residence on Bram Hall Street represented the longest period I had ever lived in one location and I was proud to call it home. In 2015, [clears throat and cough] excuse me, I was categorized as chronically homeless. I had and continue to have diagnosis related to mental health, substance use, physical health, along with traumas I would not wish upon anyone. I was without hope and lacked a support system. I reached a point where I was determined to change my circumstances and actively sought assistance. I became connected with a medicationass assisted treatment program and began addressing

my underlying issues. I was referred to and qualified for permanent supportive housing program through a resource center. I secured housing with the private landlord. These landlords demonstrated a belief in second chances and the capacity for personal change. I began to establish a support network within the program, the recovery community, and through volunteering with several organizations here in Georgetown. My well-being gradually improved and for the first time in a long time, I became a dependable individual. I gained employment at a resource center as a peer. I was able to offer hope, encourage transformation, and demonstrate a better way of life to others. Helping others is my professional passion. Had it not been for the support of resource centers, support, substance use programs, mental health initiatives, and housing programs, I am uncertain where I would be today. I have been involved with Springboard Delaware since its inception. I wholeheartedly believe in our mission that everyone deserves housing. It is disheartening to hear negative comments directed towards the homeless, those struggling with active addiction, and the mental health community. This is my community, and I know that individuals are capable of change. We are not inherently bad people seeking goodness. More often, we are ill individuals striving for recovery. Springboard provides support, services, resources, an opportunity for improvement, a chance to get well, and to find housing. Um, I was hoping that Sunny would be here tonight because if it had not been for Sunonny Gani and

Soparnamera for believing in me when I didn't, they gave me that chance that I was so hoping for. Um, thank you for letting me tell my truth. Um, if it was not for these programs and um, me getting really involved in giving back, I would not have built my house, five other houses with another affordable housing program. So, this program really does work. I have seen it work numerous times with this program and all of the other programs that I've been in. And I'm so happy that I'm able to help others like the way people have helped me. Thank you for letting me talk. Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you very much. [applause] So, I'd like to bring somebody up who came from a history that was very um tough for her. Like she she really struggled and she came through our program. She was one of the ones that a lot of people said, "Why do you keep doing this?" And I said, "Because I know she can." And she did. and she's here tonight. She's gonna talk to everybody.

Hi, my name's Jennifer. I was homeless. Um, if it wasn't for Trish, Key, Jud, Mayor West, Bonnie, I don't know where I'd be cuz she's right. They never gave up. Oh, yeah. I pushed them over and over again. And I'll tell you, they are I mean, they they're strict. They were strict on me. I just wouldn't listen to them. I'd leave come, you know, whatever. But when I finally left there, I did go back to the woods. But it wasn't for long. I finally got set fed up myself and did what I had to do. I went to rehab for the third time. Well, detox first, then rehab for the third time. Then I decided to move into Oxford House, and I've been there ever since. And I I'm a supervisor. I have a job. I'm actually moving to my own place this weekend

with my fiance. Never thought this would even happen. I mean, they people see the negative, but they got to see the positive. And I this Facebook and I get upset and I vent to Trish because I'm reading this stuff and I'm like, they don't know. They didn't they don't they never lived it. I didn't tell you because I was I was always an alcoholic but I never realized it till I became homeless because I went to work every day. But circumstances brought me back to Delaware from New England from Connecticut and that's when it all went downhill and since day one center first time Trish met me. It wasn't a good day either, but she they never ever gave up. They This town would be stupid not to have them because [snorts] they they're family to me now. They never gave up. And if they did, who knows where I'd be? I could be dead. And I'm not I'm standing here doing what I'll have two years on March 12th. And [applause] and I never thought it would happen, but it did. And it wouldn't happen if it wasn't for Trish and people like them that don't want to give up on us because the not all homeless are bad. There is mental illness there. There's alcoholism. That's what I I had. There's drug use. It is. And it's tough. And it's and it's harder to get sober or stay clean off of drugs if you are

homeless cuz you have nothing else to do. I mean, what do you do? Was everybody else? You're getting higher. You're drinking until you're ready to change your life. It's not going to happen. But they do know that people can change. And that's why they don't give up on us. And that's why they're here for us. And that's why they're fighting for the ballot village. And that's why I'm here. Because I believe in them. And I'll stand beside them anytime. [applause] So, thank you everyone for your attention, your questions. I hope we've given you a more complete picture who we are, what we are. We've endured a lot of attention, let's say, but we are determined. I can't tell you how many insurmountable roadblocks or at least we were told they were insurmountable in our journey to make this project stand up to make it run to make it successful and hopefully to expand it across Delaware. We believe in this program. The data I am sharing with you is good data. We always compare it to standard industry standards to see how well we're doing. We're honest about where we need to improve, how we need to change. We are a good program and I hope the town will come out and support us. Our brand new community center is open. We had our first open house, although we're a little short notice. We had our open house this Saturday. How many people

came? All right. We'll do a better job in the future of getting it out more, but it it was on our social media, but our social media is still picking up traffic, so it's easy to miss. Um, but the irrespective of open houses, anytime anybody wants to meet, I circulated a QR sheet, you can uh snap pictures or scan it, put your your your your name and uh uh email address. We will put you on a list and keep you up to date. You don't have to even do that. You can just email me at any time and say, "I want to come see you."

Um, recently, um, the Wilmington mayor, you know, I just understand the CEO coming to Wilmington. Um, the Wilton mayor just cut out [snorts] quite stressful because he found out that Philadelphia was sending a lot of their homeless into Wilmington. So now they're coming in Wilmington. How long do you think it's going to be before they end up in Georgetown? And that number 237 is going to expand even greater. And I mean unfortunately we have all the benefits. I mean we have we've spoken to a lot of them. You know we we were bumping you trying to help. But they don't want to go back to Philadelphia or Pennsylvania or to Maryland or whatever because it's free stuff here.

And I mean that's their words, not mine. It's their words. It's free stuff. But I'm telling you it's not going to be long. You know, you say they don't transport that or transfer that far car far car, but they can get to Wilton recently. Well, Angie and I was going down North Beford Street and we pulled up behind a car and stopped on the side of the road because there's a wellworn path that goes back off of North Beford. A car stops. Woman gets out with what, four suitcases and next thing you know, she's dragging them down this wellorn path. I understand that if you can collect a lot of anecdotal data that seems to support a conclusion,

but if it doesn't agree with the data, then you're left with a choice. Spotty anecdotal data versus research. We research. Joe, we got one online that would like to make a comment. Hi, good evening everybody. Good evening.

Good evening. I would like to know number one What sources do you specifically collect your data from? Are you colle from DAM SAMA? Where are you collecting your data from? The data that I share with you tonight on the homeless population is data that we ourselves surveyed with a multi-art form as I described in my presentation. and it collects data about their physical health, their mental health, their housing situation, their location, how long they've been here, how old they are. That information is on our by-name list that we have formed an organization called street outreach services that goes out every week and goes into the encountments and collects the data. The other data that we're looking at in terms of our performance of how many people are going for treatment and you know like 45% instead of 25 we do access DSAM or not excuse me not DSAM but SAMA national standards to try to get a measure of how we stand against other standards. So you are you able to tell me the um companies within your community that you collect data from? Specifically your MAC companies

MAC Medic I'm asking for my expert answer here.

So we work with um several organizations who do um wraparound services with us. That is the benefit and um the general makeup that we've had from all along that um we provide a safe place for people to be but we ourselves do not expect to be the expert in everything. Um that being said, we have several outreach services, treatment programs, um health services. Um Brandy Wine does a great job. Uh they come over with their um with their um targeted case management folks. Had outreach over um they do some uh testing HIV and um such testing. They're a wonderful, wonderful organization. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are. BB BB mobile clinic comes brings their mobile van right onto the property. They do a lot of the substance use and mental health referrals. Also, we would not be here without them. Um, we have Lorett. Lorett does a lot of the um counseling as well. We actually have a list of our um collaborative partners uh connections that we have people that work with our wraparound services. Right now there are 29 of them. At least 10 of them are mental health and substance use. They do a great job at helping us. We are forever grateful for their services and without them we would not have these numbers. But the system is symbiotic because we are here. They do not have to truck out into the woods to find people. They do not have to worry that people will not show up for appointments.

So we are grateful to them absolutely every day. Thank you, council. Any questions this time?

Yeah, I've got a couple. Um, we're all we all know that Georgetown has a situation that we need to help the ones that want to get help. The biggest concern out here is we just had two key board members resign off the board. Is the pallet shelter the right thing for Georgetown? Or is there something like Love, Inc. or another organization that would speed up the help that our people in this town need. Um it just seems like it's getting worse. I mean, the last three meetings we've had, it's been a full house, which is great. Um, but there's a lot of concern and you know, we're just not sure if if the pallet shelter is really helping as fast as we need it to help.

Sir, uh, Councilman, as the board chair, let me answer the question if you don't mind. Uh, you said that there were up to the mic, Mr. Ogden, if you would, please. Okay. You you said there were two board members that recently resigned. Let me answer that before you answer that. Thank you. Two m last meeting I said that I resigned from the pallet village board. I did but that didn't mean I wasn't going to be still active with helping the people. They see me out there all the time. So I'm there. The other thing I said is RL resigned from the board. I thought that's what the message was that got to me. He resigned as president of the board, but he is still a member of the board. That is correct.

So I'm sorry. I'm sorry I made those statements. Yeah, that was the information. I beg your pardon. That was the information that was given. That That's okay. And I And I That's why I stepped over to Thank you. [clears throat]

I'm not Let me finish answering his question because you asked about um um Love Love Bank in

before we opened the Pallet Village. And thanks to our town manager's assistance, we did a lot of research on the concept of small individual sleeping cabins, access to meals, access to showers, that whole program and the way it works. At that time, the pallet company was themselves starting out and they had maybe 12 or 15 villages on the west coast. We very actively pursued them to learn more about how they operated the village. and they were extremely generous. Most of them were operated by nonprofits and they gave us reams of information about their operational procedures. Um, and so that's how we picked up our model. Now, Everett, Washington, just so happens that our town manager personally visited um the Everett Gospel Mission who put up a pallet shelter across the street uh pallet village. Just got noticed today, correct me if I get this wrong, the town of Ever is building two more pallet villages. So, I know that Love, Inc. is a national model but is not a housing model. It's a coordinated services model and so if you just want to deliver services

that's a model you can look at but it will not be an alternative to the way we operate it's a different type of approach. Anybody else? Yes. Oh yeah you had one Mr. Jud. How many people started out years ago? Off top of my head, three, four, three.

No, that's not four. four months and then they successfully exited. Four months and they weren't there anymore, which mean they either got to one place or another. successfully pass. I went there numerous times and people in two weeks. So, you said the average was four months all successful. Some of them were getting arrested.

That is the average. When you look at the time between they checked in and they checked out, it does not make any distinction on why they checked out. Yeah, I'm just I'm trying to be clear. So, it it's an honest flat statement. Now, an average doesn't account for the outliers. We have three people um who need a level of supportive service that quite frankly just doesn't exist. there's no place else for them to go and they're doing quite well in the village. So, we have to make arrangements for that kind of situation. Our contract with the Division of Social Services allows for 24 month stay. We don't ever want anybody to stay that long unless there is an absolute necessity. And you heard from Bonnie, she is out there every day trying to find them opportunities for employment, trying to find opportunities for housing. So, we hope that that four months will probably be about the running average.

I think Tony's got something.

Yes. Uh I heard you mention Love Inc. U Love Loving is an organization that try to help people in other areas. They don't just do housing. But uh I over the years I've been watching the pallet village operate and it's a tough job. It ain't it's not easy task. You're dealing with different individuals. Uh recovery is tough but I commend you guys on reaching out to try to help somebody because somebody had to step up to the plate. So, not saying um people believe in all your accurate numbers or whatever, but just a reach night trying to help individuals. I appreciate it and I thank you. So, you continue doing what you're doing because if you don't believe in what you're doing, it's you're doing it. Thank you,

Jud. Thank you very much for being here. And thank you. Got a couple more questions. Go ahead. Sorry, but Washington is orders of magnitude larger than Georgetown. So drawing a distinction, they're going to open two more villages. Well, look at it this way. Regardless of the size of their community, if it wasn't solving a problem, they wouldn't do more of it. 110,000 people outside. Thank you for your comment. Thank you for your comment. That's ridiculous.

So it looked like You guys about $7 million 3.7 in the 3.5 million I think it was less than a year ago you guys were running into funding issues you have 40 houses uh million about $175,000% success rate it seems like a lot of money for not very good results you're probably using the wrong number. You should probably just concentrate on what it costs ongoing to operate. Well, obviously that's not just the cost of construction. I mean, if it was building sheds for,

but it still seems over a threeyear period. That seems like a very excessive number for per some of that money is raised and some of it is contracts that will be coming in. So, weren't you not a year ago running out of funding? Yes, that's true. Yes. So, you burn through that $7 million pretty quickly. It wasn't 7 million when we burn through it. How much was the funding between Yeah. Adam, you call me. There's people online. Would you come up to the microphone and talk, please? I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Why don't you come visit me and I'll go through all those numbers. I I I think uh what we're seeing is uh uh there's there's people with different thoughts and different ideas. I I I would love everybody to go visit the place and see what's going on because listen to Bonnie's story. Listen to this lady's story. We have got some recovering people. Now, we got Joyce in there. Everybody knows Joyce from walking around with her her wagon and all. She's not going anywhere, people. She's a lovely lady. wouldn't hurt a fly, but she's not going anywhere. Do you want us to put her back on the streets? No. She's got a relative. The relatives have tried to get her to come in. She won't do it. She don't want no part of them. This is her life, people. This is her life. God bless you and never one of you for what you're doing. And uh I I I think it's with the success stories, uh it it's great. So people, I encourage you to go visit. So, thank you very much, J. [applause]

Moving on to the first reading ordinance uh 202507.

Members of council, item number 9A on the agenda is the first reading of ordinance 2025-07. This is an amendment to article 6 UR1 urban residential district section 230-25 permitted use is adding a new permitted use cottage housing development and article 8 area layout section 194-36 lots amending frontage and access requirements for cottage housing developments. The ordinance adds a new section H cottage housing development. Purpose of the this section is to facilitate the creation of attainable workforce housing in the town of Georgetown through the creation of standards for cottage housing developments. Definitions. For the purpose of this section, the following definition shall apply. Community building, a structure which is part of a cottage housing development serving the residents of the development where cultural, recreational, social, or other activities may take place which may also include property management. B. Community space, space or land within a CHD not designated or within common open space, private open space, or an individual CDU lot in which community buildings, trash, or other accessory storage, parking or loading areas, or other site amenities are permitted. C. Cottage dwelling unit, CDU. A small detached residential dwelling unit typically oriented around a central common open space such as a courtyard, garden, or workway walkway, which shall include a minimum of 350 square ft of gross floor area, but no more than 850 square ft of gross floor area, which meets the building standards in effect in Sussex County. CDU shall not include trailers, mobile homes, travel coaches, hotels, motel, motor lodges, boarding houses, lodging houses, tourist courts, cabins, tourist homes, or similar units. D.

Cottage housing development, CHD. a planned development consisting of cottage dwelling units as defined herein as well as common open spaces and which may include community space and a community building alternatively known as cottage communities or pocket neighborhoods. CHDS shall not include two family dwellings, multiple family dwellings, public housing or supportive housing facilities as regulated by article 30 of this chapter. E. Open space common central space within a CHD reserved for exclusive use by residents and their guests and where no buildings are permitted. F. Open space private usable space and adjoining usable space adjoining and directly accessible by a dwelling unit reserved for the exclusive use by the occupants of an individual CDU and their guest. Item three, applicable applicability. Cottage housing developments, CHD, shall only be permitted within the UR1 residential district are disallowed in other districts. The minimum lot, yard, and area requirements of the UR1 zoning district shall not apply to a CHD. The remainder of the zoning code, town development design standards, and town design and construction standards shall apply except as explicitly modified, exempted, or made more restrictive by the provisions herein. Number four, plan processing approval. CHDs may be developed to create either subdivided privatelyowned fe simple lots or a collection of leasable units on a parent site which shall be under single common ownership and management. An application for a CHD shall be reviewed and approved in the following manner. A single common ownership and management as a category 1 site plan as required by section 230-207A of the zoning code. B fe simple lots as per chapter 194 subdivision of land. Portions of the parent site shall not sub shall not subdivided for individual

CDU lots shall be considered common areas andor shall be controlled by a homeowners association comprised of the owners of the individual lots individual unit lots located within the parent site. Number five, bulk area standards. A. Minimum total site area for CHD 1 acre excluding public rights of way existing or to be dedicated. B minimum dwelling setback. All structures in a CHD shall be set back 15 ft from all external property lines and 10 ft from all public street rightways. C. CDU front setback 5T from the interior roads within the development. D. CDU side setback small I 5 feet if laotted. I I 10 feet between structures. E CDU rear setbacks none provided that at least 10 feet between structures is maintained. F maximum height of any structure 35 ft. G maximum density 12 units per acre. Item six design standards. Developments shall conform to the town's development design standards DDS. The following standards shall apply in addition to those standards and/or when explicitly stated below shall modify existing DDS standards as to the CHDs. A. CDUs shall have a covered front porch at least 40 square ft in area. B. Sidewalks or paved pathways. All CDUs shall connect to interior sidewalks or paved pathways and shall meet ADA requirements. C. buffer yards. CHDs on sites smaller than 2 and 12 acres need only to provide a minimum buffer yard equal to the buffer yard one as per tables one and two in the buffer yard requirements of the DDS irrespective of adjoining uses. CHDs equal to or greater than 2 and 12 acres shall satisfy all of the buffer yard

requirements of the DDS. D open space common open spaces shall be provided and shall apply in addition to the DDS's common open space with within residential developments design standards as follows. I minimum common open space required 400 square f feet per CDU. I I each CDU unit shall be within 100 ft of walking 100 ft walking distance of a common open space which shall have cottages abuing said space on at least two sides. I I the minimum horizontal length and width dimension of any common open space shall be at least 10 ft. IV. Common open space spaces provided to meet the minimum area requirements herein may not be located within a buffer yard and may not abut external lot lines to the CHD V. At least 50% of the area of common open space shall be landscaped. Sidewalks, paved pathways, patios, pergolas, and other such structures shall be permitted in common open spaces provided that no buildings, parking or loading areas, storage, trash or utilities areas are permitted within common open spaces. E. Private open space abudding all individual CDUs shall be provided and shall satisfy the following requirements. I minimum private open space required 200 square feet per unit. I I private open space for each individual CDU shall be for the exclusive use of that CDU's residence. I I private open space may include patios and landscaped areas, but off- streetet parking, loading, or outdoor storage areas shall not be permitted within the private open spaces. Trash storage areas shall comply with the DDS. Number seven, site design a road frontage. At least 50%ed at least 50% of the CDUs shall be oriented around the

common open space with their covered porches or main entrance directly facing or abuing the common open space with no intervening driveways or street when individual loted as a subdivision. Such units need not have street frontage provided that in all cases emergency response access is provided to the satisfaction of the state fire marshall's office. B. Privacy between a budding CDU shall be accomplished along the side or rear by one of the following. I alternating CDU side window placement. I I alternating CDU setback. I I landscaping or trellising. And then C. All structures shall maintain 10 ft of separation. Item eight, parking. A location. Parking is prohibited in the following areas. I between public or private street or driveway and a CDU's front entrance on the lot unless the street is an alley and to the rear of the CDU and an II between common open space and CDUs. B. When a CHD individually loted and is proposed as a subdivision pursuant to chapter 194 subdivision of land of the town code, parking dedicated to individual lots is permitted to be located on common lands owned by a homeowners association provided that such parking spaces are deed are deed restricted or otherwise bound to their assigned CDU lot to the satisfaction of the town. C. For each one-bedroom unit, a minimum of 1.5 parking spaces is required. D. For each unit with two bedrooms and above, a minimum of two parking spaces required. Item nine, accessory uses and structures. The following uses and structures are permitted [snorts] as necessary elements to a CHD as follows. A, common building located in a community space. B. Shared garages or storage buildings located in a community

space provided that no detached accessory buildings are permitted for individual CD to use. C. Decks, patios, pergas, and other such structures. D. Fences provided the following conditions are satisfied. I. No fence interior to a CHD except for the required screening of trash and service areas shall be greater than 4 feet in height. I I no other fence including those for the required screening of trash and service areas and along the perimeter of the CHD site shall be greater than six feet in height. Section two of the ordinance modifies section 194-36 of the subdivision code dealing with lots clarifying item C, frontage or access. Except as explicitly permitted in section 23025H of the zoning code regarding cottage housing developments, each lot shall have frontage on and access to a street. Members council, this is the first reading of the ordinance, and I did receive three pieces of correspondence which I'll read into the record now. First one is from Sheila Esam 104 Murray's Lane. Mayor and council, this is in reference to the tiny homes or housing. I do not want them. I believe the town of Georgetown has other issues that need fixed before adding more problems to the people that live here. Let's fix the problems we already have before making more issues. Second one is public comment in support of zoning amendment for Market Street Village submitted to the town of Georgetown Council by John Peterson, resident of Georgetown, dated November 3rd. subject support for ordinance amendment permitting cottage housing in UR1. I respectfully submit the comment in support of the proposed zoning ordinance amendment that would permit cottage housing developments such as the Market Street Village project within the UR1 zoning district. This amendment is a lawful, policy aligned and morally

defensible intervention in Georgetown's housing landscape. It remediates blight threads affordability in the town's core and models a nonprofitled initiative legal and statutory alignment. The proposed amendment is consistent with Georgetown's authority under Delaware law to regulate land use in service of public welfare as affirmed in village of Uklid versus Amler Realy Company. It aligns with recommendations from the Delaware affordable housing production task force and anticipates future state mandates. to reject this ordinance is to risk non-compliance and to forfeit lo local control over Georgetown's housing future environmental remediation and financial benefit. The Market Street Village project would reclaim a Brownfield site, a former gas station idle for over two decades through an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 in remediation. This is not merely technical cleanup. It is a symbolic and material act of civic repair. The site's vacancy has long signaled neglect. The project threads stewardship into the built environment. The financial benefit is direct and measurable. Georgetown absorbs no cost. It gains restored land. Improved visibility and renewed tax potential. Utility infrastructure will be upgraded. Water, sewer, and electric systems will be modernized to support the new units. These improvements extend beyond the site, strengthening services, strengthening service for adj adjacent properties and threading technical resilience into the grid. Cottage housing has transitional infrastructure. Cottage housing is not fringe. It is the statistical center of the housing assistant need. It serves residents who are employed, sober, and seeking stability after crisis. These are precisely the individuals most likely to fall into the void between emergency shelter and market rate housing. To reject this model is to reject the final stretches of crisis recovery. Across the country, municipalities have adopted similar models with success. Decatur

Decar, Georgia developed six permanently affordable homes for city workers on a halfacre reclaimed lot in Langley, Washington. Cottage housing ordinances enabled clustered homes around shared green space, doubling density without sacrificing aesthetics. These projects survived public hearings and zoning scrutiny. Georgetown proposal fits squarely within this legal and civic lineage. Cottage housing is legally defensible, financially viable, and operationally modest. It does not require sweeping infrastructure or radical zoning overhaul. It requires only the political will to act. Screening and governance. Concerns about overcrowding and tenant behavior are addressed through enforceable screening criteria, including employment vera verification, background checks, and exclusion of sex offenders. Because Little Living retains ownership, it retains enforcement power. This is embedded stewardship, not absentee landlordism. ADA compliance and reasonable limitations. While the units are not ADA compliant due to size constraints, this does not violate the American with Disabilities Act. The ADA requirement requires reasonable accommodation, not universal design in every unit. Georgetown maintains Georgetown remains free to pursue additional ADA accessible housing elsewhere. This project does not preclude that obligation. symbolic terrain and relative impact. Some residents have raised concerns about the smell from the chicken processing plant. That concern is real, but for prospective tenants of Market Street Village, it is likely the least of their worries. There are individ these are individuals who have faced housing instability, recovered from crisis, and are now seeking a foothold. Compared to the uncertainty of shelter, the risk of relapsing, or the absence of affordable options, odor is a minor inconvenience. This project offers more than proximity. It offers permanence. It restores land, improves infrastructure, and provides

dignified housing for fellow residents who do not have it quite as good as the rest of us. The chicken plant may linger in the air, but Market Street Village threads stability into the ground. Rhetorical contradictions and policy clarity. Some residents demand real solutions to homelessness while rejecting both the pallet shelter initiative and now the market street village proposal. This contradiction must be addressed. Georgetown cannot claim to support recovery while vetoing every viable step toward it. Cottage housing is not a symbolic gesture. It is functional, funded, and legally sound intervention. It is worth noting gently but firmly that calls for improvement must be matched by a willingness to accept progress. When viable solutions are dismissed out of hand, the result is not preservation. It is paralysis. Georgetown deserves better than the rhetorical fatigue. It deserves action. Conclusion. The zoning amendment enabling this project is not only permissible, it is necessary. The Market Street Village project is a credible nonprofit-led investment in Georgetown's future. It reclaims idle land, provides dignified housing, improves infrastructure, and models a governance structure rooted in accountability. It supports fellow residents who do not have it as good as the rest of us, offering a foothold, not charity, or as they say, a hand up, not a hand out. I urge council to adopt the proposed ordinance and affirm Georgetown's commitment to lawful, inclusive, and forward-looking land use policy. Respectfully submitted, John Peterson, 304 North Bedford Street, Georgetown, Delaware 1 19947. Dear Georgetown Council, I watched the presentation by Little House LLC last week. I was impressed with the caring and thoughtfulness of their concept. Most important though, I realize how important this concept is for our town. We are living in a world today that recent research suggests most young people that are working entry-

level jobs cannot afford to buy a home until they are in their 40s. Seniors who are living on social security find it difficult to find homes they can afford to downsize to. Single mothers are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing for themselves, their children. Residents of our pallet village that work hard to change their lives find it difficult at the end of their journey to find housing they can afford. All of these groups could benefit from little houses. Apartments in the area are supposedly subsidized starting at $2,000 a month. No wonder young couples, single mothers, and seniors can't afford them. Even if they can, they are barely getting by, which provides no opportunity to save for homes or for homes of their own or pay for necessities like food and medicine. The little the little houses LLC project could provide housing for many of these people. The lot they are suggesting for the community is now an eyesore just as people enter our town on Route 9. The project would provide housing for over 21 people who could walk into our town and support businesses and participate in events in the circle. I do believe the council should provide guidances, two little houses on what this little community would look like. I agree with the person who spoke on the last council meeting that just parking lots being what we see on Route 9 is not a positive vision for our town. Also, I am not sure why we would need a high fence around it. We should embrace the houses. The simple units look very much like miniatures of houses on West Market Street. We should ask the developers to create the way they ask developers to create a way they look more like a planned part of our town. In this way, they would not devalue properties around them, but increase their value. I would also suggest that a stipulation for approval is that they prioritize those working in Sussex County for future residents, as Lewis did with the

Dutchman community. Finally, I live in Councilman Barrett's ward. I would like to ask the question of him as to where those people live that he said talked to him in opposition to the little house concept. Many of my neighbors agree with me on this. Maybe he should listen to his constituents. Sincerely, Dr. Sharon M. Pitchard. That's all I have, sir, on that one. Thank you, Jean. Uh, I've got two forms filled out from people that want to make comments. And the first one is, well, before we get to that, council members, any uh comments, any questions? Jean, can I ask a question or two? Um, maximum density 12 units. Is that net or gross?

Okay. um on that and then you know I still think that um any of the roads inside development would be um right away. So I don't know if we have a conflict between the separations or not. So you get back to me on that. Yeah. Know and that's cool then and that's the only two questions I got. Daniel, anything?

No. Uh, first person to comment, Linda Dennis. What did she do? Who' you kick? No, I'm not. Who' you kick? Good evening, mayor and council.

This is point counterpoint. Um, I stand before you to express my opposition both to the zoning amendments that would enable Little Living Incorporated to build the 23 homes off V Market Street and to the concept of such a project within town limits. Georgetown should not be viewed as a test site for programs and projects that that do not preserve what is left of our historic town. Little by little, decisions have been made that do not add to the our prominence in the area. Some we have had no control over, while others have been the result of decisions that now appear questionable in the rear view mirror. In fact, our profile speaks for itself. Compared to Lewis and Milton, Georgetown comes in last in all important economic metrics, including we have the highest poverty rate, we have the lowest home ownership rate, we have the lowest medium income, and we have the lowest educational levels and the highest family size. The basic foundation of this program's concept flies in the face of certain realities. Cheer, for example, is on the verge of a large expansion of its lowincome rental properties for seniors. Also, let's not forget the 120 plus Greenley single family rental project directly across the street from this proposed site. Obstensively, this project describes its mission and purpose as very similar to that of the Greenley project. affordable housing for working people. How many more model rental programs can the taxpayers of Georgetown sustain and host? Furthermore, we know that some rental properties in our town have been

and continue to be a detriment to our town. The genesis and this is an important point. The genesis and timing of the discussions leading up to the zoning amendments along with the presentation of the tiny home living is simply suspect. Why were the zoning amendments presented and voted down by the planning commission before the public even got to express its concerns? This feels like a fatal complement that had already been decided before the affected part parties even got to hear about it. One unacceptable response to the opposition has been quote, "We want to get ahead of the affordable housing issue before the state tells us that we have to do it visav affordable housing." I say baloney. We need to preserve what is ours and to respectfully reject some of the recommendations contained in the affordable housing task force final report of April 2025. And if you don't have it, you should look at it. There are many issues concerning the con this concept of this program. Some of which you were heard at the last meeting, but in summary, I will say the descriptors of the 23 leased homes do not inspire an appreciation of the concept of community living. They're very small, too close together, and if anything, they can easily become a blight on the community. If you listen to the reading of the ordinance, the numbers are unacceptable. a porch that is 44 by 10 40 feet 10 feet apart four feet from the sidewalk. Regardless of course there were location uh brings considerable traffic concerns and also the loss of a small commercially zoned property which we don't have too much commercial property left in town. We should be thinking creatively about what

else we could do with that land. Parking accommodations along along East Market Street is not acceptable. Even now, East Market Street is not a scenic byway into town. Former Brownfield site requires remediation that will be costly and the money could certainly be used uh that are well spent somewhere else. The design, these are not cottages. They are sad versions of pre-epressionary employee housing. Offensive odors and noise emanating from the Purdue plant are have been spoken about. The detrimental impact on property values on the adjacent wellestablished and care for neighborhood homes. These folks deserve better from our town officials. Additionally, we have the prepundonderance of transitional supportive housing programs that serve persons with special needs. These facilities emerge without prior notification. Basically, Georgetown has more than its fair share of not forprofit programs that do not contribute to our tax base. Lastly, I want to put forth a recommendation. I would suggest that Little Living Incorporated sit down with the developers of Greenley to see if there's a possibility of collaborating to set aside a small number of smaller homes on their site that would accommodate the little living concept. The integration of these two very similar programs um actually they're identical when you read the descriptions would eliminate most of the object objections but not further imposing on our town. So I would like to see that occur. I'd like to have the council gan to try to sit down and accommodate some kind of a meeting to discuss a possible integration of those two programs. Thank you.

Thank you Linda. Second one is uh Dennis Lindsay. [applause] [clears throat] Now to get to just by raise of hands, how many are against the zoning right now? Or how many Put your hand. How many are against Little Living going there? So you're against the zoning and the little living completely everything. So if we talked to Greenley and uh they done it out front there, we wouldn't be able to get it through and like because we don't have the zoning has already been approved. That's an approved project,

but it'd have to be approved for cottages. Well, you can Well, not necessarily. That's that's something G and I'll talk about. We'll talk to the planning talk to Brian about. Okay, sir. I'm sorry.

No problem. Dennis Winsreed, 23365 Park Avenue in Georgetown. Just want to address the fact that what we're talking about here is strictly the zoning change, not approving Little Living's Development. Okay. Little Living's development is simply set forth as an example of what can be done. In order for that property to be compliant under the UR1 code, which is being proposed to be amended here, there would have to be a zoning change for a good portion of that property. So, that would have to come before planning anyhow, and you would have your chance to voice your objections. There's

already objected. Okay. It was u excuse me I do have the floor. You do. Okay. Correcting me.

Anyhow, statement here is simply that what is being voted on is a zoning change. It's not approval of the little living development. Also, everyone in here who has come forth before and raised their hands saying we don't want this are also coming forth and complaining about the homelessness problem and the lack of affordable housing in town. This is attempting to address the lack of affordable housing and to provide housing so people in the homelessness situation as they move up the ladder have a place to go. Saying you can put it outside of town is not an answer. Okay. That would be the county. You have to go to the county for that. It's simply

if I'm just going to be met with whispering and side comments, I'm done. I've said my piece. [applause] No, you didn't fill out a form. Have a seat. You can speak in public comment at the end. Okay. Moving on to item 10, second reading, adoption of ordinance 202511 and 202512.

Members of council, item number 10A, ordinance 202511, comprehensive plan, future land use map amendment and zoning amendment for parcel 13514.00-34.00. This is an ordinance to amend the comprehensive plan future land use map for 0.191 acre portion of 24.64 acre parcel from multifamily residential to commercial and amendment of the code of the town of Georgetown chapter 230 thereof entitled zoning to change the zoning map for a point 191 acre portion of a 24.64 64 acre parcel from townhouse residential MR2 to highway commercial HC and to change a 1.2 acre portion of that same 26 24.64 acre parcel from highway commercial HC to townhouse residential MR2 for the property located at 2304 DuPont Boulevard identified as Sussex County Tax Parcel 135-14.00-34.0 00 whereas the town council of the town of Georgetown received an application to amend the comprehensive plan future land use map from multifamily residential to commercial for a 0.191 plus or minus acre portion of the property identified as Sussex County tax parcel 135-14.00-34.00 00 and to amend the town zoning map for this portion of the parcel from townhouse residential MR2 to highway commercial HC. And whereas the town council, the town of Georgetown, received an application to amend the comprehensive plan future land use map from commercial to multifamily residential for a 1.2 plus or minus acre portion of the same property identified as Sussex County Tax Parcel 135-14.00-34.0

00 and to amend the town zoning map for this portion of the parcel from highway commercial to townhouse residential MR2. And whereas the planning commission of the town of Georgetown has reviewed the request for these amendments to the future land use map identified as map 10-3 in the comprehensive plan and has recommended approval by the town council. And whereas the planning commission of the town of Georgetown has reviewed the zoning map amendment applications for these portions of land and has recommended approval of the same by the town council. And whereas the town council of the town of Georgetown held an advertised public hearing on October 13, 2025 to allow for public comment on the applications. And whereas the town council finds the proposed use and amendments are compatible with the town of Georgetown comprehensive plan and that permitted uses described in the area are consistent with the intent of chapter 230 zoning. And whereas the town council finds the proposed uses and amendments are compatible with the existing adjoining uses and future land use for adjoining areas. And whereas the town council has not received any comments with respect to this application. and where is the opinion of the town council of the town of Georgetown that the amendments will not have an adverse effect on adjoining adjacent properties and is in the spirit of the Georgetown zoning code and should be approved there now therefore the town council by the town of Georgetown hereby ordained section one the town of Georgetown comprehensive plan future land use map identified as map 10-3 is hereby amended to change 0.191 plus or minus acres part of Sussex County tax map parcel 135-4 14.00-34.0 from multifamily residential to commercial [snorts] and to change 1.2 plus or minus acres of the same parcel from commercial to multifamily residential. The remainder of parcel 135-14.00-34.0

will remain designated as hereto for section two. The current comprehensive the current Georgetown zoning map be amended for the property identified as Sussex County tax map parcel 135-14.00-34.00 by zoning 0.191 plus or minus acres of the 24.64 acre parcel to a classification of highway commercial district and by zoning 1.2 plus or minus acres of the same 24.64 64 acre parcel to a classification of MR2 townhouse residential. The remainder of the parcel 135-14.00-34 will remain zoned as here24. Section four, this or section three of this ordinance shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by the majority vote of the members of the council of town Georgetown. Pleasure of the mayor and council.

Council, any comments? Recuse itself since I'm a part of the Baptist church. Okay, sir. Thank you. With that, I'd entertain a motion to uh for the second reading to go through an adoption ordinance 202511 and 202512. Just one. I have a second one. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. 202511. So moved. Thank you, Eric. Second. I'll second it. All in favor signify saying I. I. I. Roll call. Ward one. I. W two. I. Ward three. I. And ward four is recusing itself and I'm an I. So moving forward to 202512.

Okay. Item 10B ordinance 2025-12. This is a comprehensive plan future land use map and zoning amendment for parcel 135-14.00-34.01. An ordinance to amend the comprehensive plan future land use map for 1.326 acre portion of a 6.295 295 acre parcel from commercial to multif family residential and amend and an amendment to the town of to the town of the town of Georgetown chapter 230 thereof entitled zoning to change the zoning map for a 1.326 acre portion of a 6.295 acre parcel from highway commercial HC to townhouse residential MR2. This property is located at 20352 DuPont Boulevard identified as Sussex County, tax parcel 135-14.0034.01. Whereas the town council of the town of Georgetown received an application to amend the comprehensive plan future land use map from commercial to multifamily residential for a 1.326 acre portion of the property identified as Sussex County map 135-14.00-34. 00-34.01 and to amend the town zoning map for this portion of the parcel from highway commercial to townhouse residential. And whereas the planning commission of the town of Georgetown has reviewed the request for an amendment to the future land use map identified as map 10-3 in the comprehensive plan for these 1.326 acres from highway commercial to townhouse residential and has recommended approval by the town council. And whereas the planning commission of the town of Georgetown has reviewed the zoning map amendment application for this portion of the parcel and has rec and has recommended approval by the town council. And whereas the town council of the town of

Georgetown held an advertised public hearing on October 13, 2025 to allow for public comment on the application. And whereas the town council finds the proposed use and amendments are compatible with the town of Georgetown comprehensive plan and the permitted uses described for the area are consistent with the intent of chapter 230 zoning. And whereas the town council finds the proposed use and amendments are compatible with existing adjoining uses and future land uses for the adjacent areas. And whereas the town council has not received any comments with respect to this application. And whereas it is the it is the opinion of the town council of the town of Georgetown. The amendments will not have an adverse effect on adjacent properties and are in the spirit of the Georgetown zoning code and should be approved. Now therefore, the town council of the town of Georgetown hereby ordains. Section one. The town of Georgetown comprehensive plan future land use map identified as map 10-3 is hereby amended to change 1.326 plus or minus acres part of Sussex County tax parcel 135-14.00-34.01 from commercial to multif family residential. The remainder of the parcel 13514.0034.01 will remain designated as hereto for section two. The current Georgetown zoning map be amended for the property identified as Sussex County tax map parcel 135-14.00-34.01 by zoning 1.326 plus or minus acres of the 6.295 acre parcel to a classification of MR2 townhouse residential. The remainder of parcel 1351 14.00 34.01 will remain zoned here to four. Section three. This ordinance will take effect immediately upon the adoption of the majority vote of the members of the town council of the town of Georgetown. Pleasure of the mayor and council.

With that council, uh, I'd entertain a motion to accept 202512. So moved. Thank you, Eric. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Tony. All in favor sign by saying I. I. Opposed. Roll call. Ward one. I. Wo. I. W three. I. And W four is uh not going to vote and I'm an I so uh uh 40 401 so thank you very much moving forward departmental reports town manager Jean thank you have a good evening sir

preacher preacher okay members count just a couple items Sussex County family court facility is complete the ribbon cutting is taking place this Thursday November 13th hope everyone takes an opportunity to stop by and see its beautiful structure. Our salt barn um at the public works building is making significant project pro progress. The completion is anticipated December 1st of this year. Um pump station rehabilitations, we have completed the meadows, three bells in the health unit. Uh the blowers at Gordy Street and Stevenson Lane have been replaced and currently in process. We have the big park pump station. Demolition is underway and we're currently in a bypass operation pending installation of the um new pumps. Senate joint resolution 8 zoning land use reform zoning and land use pilot program. We did receive notification of our approval for the technical assistance from the Delaware State Housing Authority. The focus areas that we identified by our resolution was for missing middle housing types as permitted uses within residential zones. the creation of pre-reviewed design plans for missing middle housing types. Increasing buildable density for housing by reducing minimum lot sizes and bulk standards. Increasing building heights for multifamily housing and/or mixeduse developments. Establish an inclusionary zoning program to address affordable and workforce housing needs and um allow higher density mixed use with residential and commercial zones or employment centers and reduce parking requirements in areas zoned for residential and mixed use to promote walkable communities and provide more affordable development opportunities. We're waiting on the um state housing authority to identify who the contractor they're going to utilize is and then I believe after the first of the year we'll be starting on that. Upcoming events. The town um offices will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11th for Veterans Day. Supportive housing issues committee will meet Thursday, November 13th, 4 p.m. here at town hall.

America 250 committee will meet Monday typo in that. Monday, November 17th, 3:30 p.m. here at town hall. Town offices will be closed Thursday, November 27th in observation of Thanksgiving and Friday the 28th for the day after Thanksgiving. Um the House and Senate reconvene this Thursday and I'll go through what is news during this session. So there was nothing on the first page. Uh second one is House Bill 255. This is um corporate and personal income taxes. This is decoupling from federal law. We are neutral on that. That was voted out of the administration committee in the house on the 7th of November. House substitute one for House Resolution 19 remote participation in special sessions. We are neutral on that. that was um into the rules committee on the 7th and I believe today I read that it had been released from committee and Senate Bill 206 extension of the deadline for property tax payments in Newcastle County were neutral on that did pass the Senate on November the 6th. That's all I have. Sir,

thank you Jean Council. Any comments to Gan? None. Well, moving forward, uh we're at the time of uh public comment. Now is the time to hear from Republic. We we welcome your comments which are very important to us. Note that all comments are limited to three minutes. As a reminder, go to the podium to comment. Please give your name, address, and address your remarks to the chair. Note that this will not be entering into dialogue at this time. The purpose of this agenda item is for you, the public, to inform us, the councils, about your views. I'm going to start off with the read letters to read. Oh, he's got two letters to read. We'll do them first.

Okay. Um, this is from Clothing Our Kids. On behalf of our board of directors and volunteers, thank you for the donation of 6,452 to Clothing Our Kids. Clothing Our Kids is approaching its 12th anniversary, and it's clear that since our inception, the need for school clothing assistance in our community has been significant. Over the past 11 plus years, Clothing Our Kids has distributed over 244,000 articles of clothing to more than 38,000 children and is able to meet that demand for new school clothing thanks to the people and businesses that have continued to support our mission. In addition to serving all preK Head Start elementary and middle school students in Sussex County in 2024, we added three high schools. The homeless liaison in these schools tell us they have funds in their budgets for emergency food and shelter, but they have no budget or funds for clothing. Closing our kids has been able to fill that void. None of our work would have been possible without support from people like you. So for your kindness and the expanding hope and promise to those who have so little, all of us at Clothing our kids say thank you. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Bob Bulan, president. Second one is from Easter Seals. On behalf of Easter Seals, Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to you and the town of Georgetown for your generous support through the great fund. We are honored to receive the award of $5,000 which will be which will directly benefit our artfulness program at our Georgetown Center. Because of your support, Easter Seals can continue to provide exceptional programs and services to people with disabilities, giving them the opportunity to live, learn, work, and play in their communities with independence and dignity. We would not be able to provide these services without this generous support. It is because of your efforts that Easter Seals, Delaware, and Maryland's Eastern Shore enjoys a stellar reputation in our community. Thank you again for making a

difference in the lives of people with disabilities. And it's signed by Keenan Stylar, the president CEO. That's all I have, sir. Thank you, Jean. All right, we're gonna open it up. We're gonna start with the representative first. So, we're gonna let you uh take the floor and go.

Hi everybody. I'm Representative Valerie Jones Gilner, the House Representative for District 37, which is Georgetown. So, um, thank you mayor, council, and citizens. I wanted to update you and let you know that um I've been listening to you. I've had many comments. People have called me, but living just 50 feet outside of town limits and growing up on West Market Street where mom and dad still reside, I see the impact of the homelessness and also substance abuse. the nurse and me when I first came into office, I do an assessment and I attempt to do a diagnosis and figure out what we can do as far as a care plan to correct this um problem. So I've met recently and over the past year I'd say I've met with each stakeholder in this. So whether it was higher ground or the pallet village, I've also gone over to Seafford and looked at the love inc model. I've visited with Delm Marba Adult and Teen um challenge which has tremendous results too because I want to understand what's the best practices out there. I've also looked to see what happens across the country. What are some of the the good models going? Um I know that the the homeless and the substance abuse population has grown in our area. It's been for various reasons. I think we try and put our finger on one reason as far as why it has grown and and it's not. There's various um factors that have contributed to the growth. I've heard things like that the prison discharges in the middle of the night or they they stick around here because that's where their probation officer is. I've heard that they're waiting for their court hearing and so they stick around town. um that they have uh we have screenshots of where people have invited them to come from other cities and other towns saying Georgetown has

great resources um behavioral health word of mouth whatever the reason the people of Georgetown are really shouldering the burden um they they have found great resources here and so they come here but we are addressing it in a very fragmented way so um and I've observed we have both public health. We have safety health hazards. When we have needles that are on the side of the street, when I'm picking up alcohol bottles, um when I'm helping with the trash pickup, when we have feces and urine um left in the back of pickup trucks, whether they're at Denre or at a local car lot, um this is this is not a good standard of living for us in the community. And so, what are we doing? what can I do as a state representative? Um, I got together with Senator Pedagon and we we had observed how a lot of this burden was going on to the community and then also to the nonprofits, but where were the state resources in this and although they would assist when called upon, they were not doing it in an organized manner. We're very siloed when you look at the state resources. So just last week we had a meeting where we had every state agency and department that we could think of. We also had the police from Georgetown. We had the mayor. We had the town manager involved. And we had a closed door meeting to brainstorm around this and first let the state departments and agencies know the burden that this community had come under and then what could we do. Um I I think it was a great meeting um that came out of that. We have an action plan um that we're we're moving forward with, but I I want to address it as a whole. Um we talked with we heard from the

pallet village earlier. They address single people. They are not addressing the families that we have that are residing out in a local hotel where there's a voucher. [clears throat] Um the Delaware State Housing told me that there are many shelter beds available just up north. I've talked with the prison as far as whether they truly were discharging a night. So, we've done a lot of investigation and back work or background work on this and now it's time to move forward. And and so, like I say, I want you to trust in me that we have a plan to where we will integrate all of these state resources and take the burden off, not let them just sit back, but take the burden off of the community. Try and find what the root cause is. not for the group as a whole, for the substance abuse, for the homeless, they all have varied reasons. So, we had the Veterans Administration in there, we had behavioral health, we had everybody to say, "Okay, we're going to address each unique individual, find out why they became homeless, and then do they want to relocate? what can we do to get them out of this, but not put the burden on one organization that is here in Georgetown, not put it on the community, but have the state resources come together and help address this and move the needle. So, um, that's what we're doing. I hope that it helps. Um, it is not a one-step action plan. It is multi-pronged and [clears throat] it but we're going to be quick acting on it. So, thank you.

Thank you, Valerie. [applause] The mic is open. Anybody want to step up? Please do. Hi, I'm Michelle Burroughs from Georgetown.

Yes. I'm sorry. Let me bring down some. So, I wasn't really going to talk on this, but since it hit social media, I feel the need to sort of, you know, represent my office. Um, if everybody's not familiar, this was posted on social media about a needle being found at our office. Um, unfortunately, one of our patients had to tell us that they had seen it. We called the Georgetown PD. I've talked to the chief and I think we've got a plan. Um, but there's a lot of other things going on. Just last week, I had a nurse practitioner and one of my other employees walking out after work. Well, we know that it's getting dark now. So, I walk out the door and then I have this rude gentleman on the bike coming right down in between me and the nurse practitioner where her car is right behind her. There's hardly no room. Cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Excuse me. this is my um this is my shortcut. I said, "No, this is private property. Please do not use this way." Well, we have a trail back here. I said, "Yes, that trail you have made." I said, "But again, is private property." So, but this isn't just this was just last week, but this happens all the time. We have ongoing things that happen all the time and I'm just asking for a solution. I want to know when we're going to start or we're going to stop making Shepherd's House a priority and make

Georgetown Georgetown businesses more of a priority. We're suffering because of everything that's going on. And I really believe that all the riff raff and stuff comes from right down the road.

And that's all I got to say on something. That's that's Thank you very much.

Thank you. [applause] Clayton Townsen 20293. I want to give my kudos out to um Chief Holmes. Um few meetings ago I brought up a fact of a friend of ours had a crackhead sitting on her step. We were all in the morning 3:30 4:00 in the morning something. Um and we spoke after the meeting last time when um brought it up when he had followed up. Um the um name appeared that um you know, as I said before, he had just gotten out of prison. the police officer um notified our friends and um chief followed up and apparently this guy was going car to car to car to car throughout the neighborhood and they got enough video of him and he was back into um um SCI. So we um I thank Chief for following up on that. Um the little homes um concept is not for Georgetown. It is a historical town. what's left of it. Um it's uh we got to change our ways. It's just not going to work. And the zoning, as Linda brought up, there's very little commercial zoning left in this town. Let's maintain that property. I know it's remediation is got to happen um for for some businesses, but um if you could put housing on top of a um what is it? Grayfield, then we need to um or brownfield. We need to um um get that remediation so we can get some get another ice cream shop or doughnut shop or something there instead of a business of some sort instead of trying to bring these little houses in here. So, thank you.

Thank you, Clayton. [clears throat]

Adam Bushkowski 200 South Bedford Street. um not uh really big on more rental properties. I mean, I've been in Georgetown a little over seven years now, and there [snorts] has been plenty of rental that have been built in town, be it the Oaks, be it by Walmart. Um we need more home ownership ownership opportunities. Um I'm a big fan of this. Um you know, I'm fortunate enough to have bought a house before COVID, but it seems that if you did not, you were pretty much so these days. And these developers come, they come for zoning ordinances. It's your one chance of having them over the barrel, getting the demands you need, getting them to fund things that are going to be impacted. Schools, fire, uh, stations, police departments, things of that nature. And it seems all too often we're just eager to give them what they want. They build, they make their money, they go away. Um, I'd really like to see the town have an emphasis on If we're going to build smaller homes, which I'm not opposed to, doing it so that people can own them and experience the American dream and have a shot at a good future. And they'll be better neighbors. The homeowners will be better neighbors than renters. And it's time to give people a shot of the American dream again. Let's get some people owning houses. Let's not just turn into the rental haven of Sussex County with all the halfway houses and everything else that Georgetown's doing. It's pretty clear the people here are tired being the guinea pig of Sussex County on tiny homes and all the other different things that we have. Um, and I don't blame them. I mean, look, we done this for a couple years and the town has just continually got worse. So, I think it's time to step back, maybe listen to the people who elect you and choose a

different path forward. Let's try something new. Let's be creative. And it's about all I got on that tonight. Thank you guys very much. Thank you, Adam.

Robin, 305 North Front Street. Apologize for coming up earlier.

That's all right, Robin. I'm new to this adulting stuff as anybody who knows me. Um, you know, the folks from Pallet Village were here earlier. I mean, it tugged at my heartstrings. I'm not a bad person. Um, they're to be commended and applauded, but I don't think I ought to be pillared for not wanting as a taxpayer to be approached at Wawwa or run into a junkie while I'm walking my dog. Um, as a property owner, I don't think I'm a bad person for not wanting to have my property devalued. Um, I'd like to know what other towns were approached with this wonderful opportunity that, um, the, uh, tiny house folks have presented us with. I don't know how I go about that. So if anybody has any insight or you know knows if Milton or Lewis were fortunate enough to be given this opportunity, I'd like to know. Um and uh I moved away for 25 years. I came back for a reason and I've got a lot of friends who are transplants. Um God love you. Some of you need to go back. [laughter] Love you. That's um part of the problem is the homeless, part of it is transplants and uh

you know which camp you fall into. And uh anybody who thinks that more more pallet village is uh good because Ever Washington is doing it, you need some help. That's all I got to say. Thank you, Robin. [applause]

Eddie Wise, Old Park Avenue. Um, I am opposed to the tiny cottages. Um, not just because of what they represent, where they're going, and the code, how the code itself is written. Um the code is written so that it's UR1. Well, UR1 is residential housing. Okay? So, anyone with a piece of property of any size could put these tiny houses on it. And there's nothing that anyone up there can do to stop them if this code is go goes through the way it's written. So, anyone who has an empty lot next to them could potentially have these tiny cottages go up next to them. And m Mr. Mayor, you're you're always saying lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. So, if somebody brings in one of those projects with this zoning, none of you can stop it. And if you try to, then you're going to have a lawsuit. So if we want to change the zoning or something, have it have it something on its own or have it a conditional use. With a conditional use, everyone up there has a say then it doesn't just automatically go through or have it its own code. But the way it's written right now can be a very big problem for this town. Thank you. Got you.

Bunny Burton, North Bever Street, tiny homes. I'd like before you think about it, think about it. The people that live around there that have children. If you've got children and there are children around there all the time because they're walking to the San Hill lots, the Sand Hill acres. We see them all the time cuz my son lives in that area. But they're walking right down the street um in front of all these homes. You're going to have people living there that you don't know. It's not going to be local people most likely. And I want you to think about the fact that there are kids and it's not fair to the parents. It's not fair to the people that live there. It's just not a good idea at that that spot. Thank you.

Thank you, Wanda. [applause]

I'm Sue Barllo, 703 East Laurel Street Extended. I've lived in uh a lot of places. I've lived near North Carolina and Mississippi. When I saw those little houses go up, the little example houses go up, the first thing I thought of was sharecropper. These little sharecropper cottages are actually sheds, shacks. That's what they're called in North Carolina and Mississippi. And that's exactly what they will look like in two years because nobody that there'll be one town of Georgetown want to rent those places because they are so tiny. They are shabby, poorly built. Hey, the the I just heard the them say or the I guess Jean read that the uh the open space is going to be 10 by 10. Uh my bathroom is bigger than that and I have a tiny bathroom. Thi this this is the most ridiculous idea that you that town council has ever even considered. It really is because it it does nothing for this town. People coming and going from Georgetown is going to go past that place. It's going to look like a a sharecropper shack. All of them. And I'm asking you please do not pass this ordinance. Thank you sir. [applause]

Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Maria Ramos. I live in 211 South Front Street. Um I'm kind of new on this. This is my second meeting. But my opinion to this is um like I said before, yes, you know, we are welcome and help them, but I don't think um the place where they're talking about is like right there on Market Street. I mean, could be something in my personal opinion, maybe something out of town. And unfortunately, you know, the persons they already left because you know, they did only half of the meeting. And thank you representative for being here too, you know, to listen our concern because like the last person spoke, you know, it's like our concern is our kids at this point, you know, like me kind of grown woman kind of, you know, know what's right, what's wrong, but a little kid, a four-year-old, you know, and now I'm a grandma, you know, my kids are grown. I think um the mayor and everybody else, you know, they need to consider all of that. It's not that we against it, you know. we can't help but probably outside of our our town. Plus, you know, um I don't know how many acres they're looking up there for those 23 houses. There's so many so much land selling like right outside Georgetown and like somebody else say what about other towns you know what about between Georgetown between Laurel C4 and all these places like like you say you know they got team challenge you know they got a very good program and you know I go crossroad one my church is one of the biggest one to support them but they have the space like you separately. It's not right into town cuz like they say, yes, the these people, you know, they're they're not right on

their mind, you know, especially when they got something in their body, you know, some that's why things happen because, you know, they don't know what they're doing. So, and like the gentleman was spoke that you know, he said, yeah, they got the program for four months. So, after that, they have to leave. So, what happened with that? you know, if they not fully recover, they coming back and they say, "Hey, that's my that my spot and start arguing." And I see are my my police officer, you know, there's like two or three police officers, you know, trying to talk with these people sometimes with influence. I mean, I'm totally agree to help them, but probably just outside our our town. That's one thing. Then our second thing like um now that we have the representative here, another programs that we need is for our kids, you know, for for our younger kids like middle school, um high school to have more sports for them, things that, you know, they can be supported. That way we're not going to be having more issues because you know like the ones that we have is like a certain age, but everybody else that's coming up it'll be less because they have programs, they have things um for them to do. That's um that's what I want to accomplish. And then another thing that you know that she's here to um you know unfortunately I'm not sure if there's still the government shutdown or it's it's already up. process.

Yeah.

Yeah. And then that's another thing that you know since you here we definitely need help with that cuz you know there's families that I know that they really need a look on the food stamps and basically they leave out of that. So it's like you know um since you're here I'm sorry but [laughter] to to push that out on that too. And then um yeah, and I know like my community is not here, but like I said, you know, I'm going to keep pushing and be be here for my community. I live here in Georgetown for 28 years. My kids born and raised here, so I love this town and um I'm going to do what I can, you know, to help and support. Thank you.

Thank you very much. [applause] Anybody else? Sorry.

I just want to clarify some points that were made. The Greenly development on um Route 9 east is in town limits. It's 130 plus homes, single family rental properties. That's why I was suggesting that there be some consideration for these two projects to sit down and collaborate because it's right across the street basically. So the traffic will be tremendous. The other thing is that the planning commission at its October meeting or late September meeting, I can't remember, resoundingly voted against the zoning amendments that would allow this development to go forward. So, I just wanted to remind the public of that they rejected it. Thank you.

Thank you, Linda. Don't look at me like that, Billy. [laughter] And I don't know how much time Jean had to read comments, but since he didn't read mine, can I just highlight them before my other three minutes? [laughter] Three minutes. Three minutes, Maria. Well, Jean, can you read my comments that I sent in? Well, yeah, if you've got them.

No, I'll just read them myself. Um, I want to start out first by thanking people. Thank Shelley and her husband. Um, you all can't talk to me, but you could raise your hand. How many of you went out and picked up trash besides Jean? I saw Jean out, but you're not up there. [laughter] I appreciate that. But those people that, you know, we voted in office, I'd like to know if they were supporting and how many of them got out of Kimmy Town because Shelley and her husband helped Jerry and I do our corner of the town and we filled up and we picked up um I don't know how many 45 and 55 gallon bags of trash and stuff that wouldn't fit in the bags. Um, so thank them for that. And, uh, thank Chief Holmes and the police for what they're doing at, um, Waw Wa, Reders, Walmart. I don't know who put up that sign at RNER's, but I love that. Um, Little League Fields. Um, my block actually for you don't that don't know where I live, it's 507 North Beford Street. Um, from the liquor store down to McGee Motors has actually been a lot quieter in the last few weeks. I don't know why. I don't know if the people that have moved off Brittingham Lane have stopped using it as an avenue, but it's a lot quieter. There haven't been any fights in front of the liquor store in in a few weeks, which is all good. Uh so, thank [clears throat] you to the police for taking care of that and keeping an eye on our neck of the woods. Um we are not in favor of those little houses, as my comment said. Um, I think you can tell by the number of people that have been coming to the public meetings that they're not either. [snorts] And um, the board that spoke last week, I watched it from um, or last time I watched it from home. I wonder how many of them live in Georgetown and would have this to deal with like the

rest of us that live here do. Um, whether you're a transplant or not, you still have to live with it. And um the gentleman that had the cane, I think he was the primary stakeholder. I thought it was funny that um he was telling us about the rowous that his family grew up in and how they chopped it up and divided it up so people could rent rooms from them to pay it. Everything that Mark said that's going on in Georgetown and that's what's going to happen at the little houses because that's what he grew up with and he himself has a cane. So he said senior citizens, you know, living there, etc. He himself had a cane and ramps, as you all know, take up a lot of space. It's so many feet for so much incline. He couldn't even put a ramp in. And if he did, he wouldn't be able to fit through the door when he got to the top. So, what what good are they to anybody that's a senior citizen? And everything that he said he's done for the homeless community, I bet none of that was done here in this one. I bet he did it in the town that he lived in, Lewis or Rehobath or wherever he was from, but I doubt that any of it was done here in this area. And if I am, he can he can correct me on that at another meeting. But, um, our concerns are, you know, the people that live there, a fire, someone that's sick and needs an ambulance, how are they going to get in there? Because if you live on What street do you live on?

West Street. West North Street where those town houses are. They're limited to how many people can park, I'm assuming, for each townhouse, but you can ride in there and the road going in and all the way back is lined up with cars. And there's no way those fire trucks or an ambulance can get in there and maneuver like they have to. So, those little houses are going to be the same situation. So, you don't have to read mine next time. I just highlighted it for you. But I wanted to thank Shelley and her husband and the police department for what they've been doing lately in my corner of Georgetown.

Thank you, Maria. [applause] Anybody else? Chief, [clears throat] good evening. Ralph Holm. I'm your chief of police here in Georgetown. And uh first of all, I want to say that um I know I have uh our people have a lot of support from this community and uh and I hear I come to these meetings and I scan every statement and comment that's made and make Georgetown great again. Uh and what upsets me about some of these comments is they're not helping the people that are out there trying to to help you. um these statements about things that are happening, but we're not getting told about them. We're reading things that happened weeks ago or months ago or whatever. So, all of I'm I'm not here to defend anything. What I'm going to tell you is as of tonight at 5:00, we had 8,934 calls for service for the police department. Did a little quick math. That's 28 calls for service every single day. And we all know that it doesn't happen like that every single day. We could go a day and maybe only have five. So my officers are busy out there protecting the streets and dealing with what we can deal with. These people you're constantly complaining about. There are frequent flyers. Nobody is more frustrated with these people that we deal with on a constant basis than my officers. But they still come up to work. They still arrest these people. They still take them to court where they're released back onto the streets. Needles. We saw a picture of a needle. We find those all the time. We find them on people and we arrest them for it. But guess what? No one's going to jail for drug paraphernalia, which is what that's considered. Panhandling isn't against

the law. The Attorney General's office will not enforce or prosecute loitering or solicitation. So, we've had to think outside the box and how we can address our most uh troublesome people. And that's not everybody. So, what I want to say, I I've heard a couple comments about response time. You know, it took over two hours and they never showed up. Well, I'm going to tell you right now, if that if that happens, you call me and tell me about it. I'll look it up. So, one of the gentlemen who made that comment, I looked it up. We were busy with a personal injury accident out on the highway. 10 minutes later, we had a property damage accident out on the highway and 15 minutes after that, we had a domestic violence call for service. We only have a certain number of people working the street and I've been working that on as well. We have four people in the Delaware State Police Academy that graduate February 19th. We'll be at full 25 staffing. All right? So, that's going to help. But what I want you to do is if you have any issues with the police department response times or no response at all or anything else, I'll I'll give you my card. It has my cell phone on it. You can call me anytime, day and night. Uh if it's after I'm asleep, I might not answer, but you can leave me a voicemail and you can leave me a text message and I promise you we'll look into it and we'll address it. I had to hear or read a post from a traveling ball mother from out of the state uh about the conditions of the uh little league um dugouts. After I read that post, for the next four days, I sent my officers out there in the morning and the evening and we picked up somebody every single time. That didn't have to go that long before we could have addressed it. Now, we address it by arresting them and we take them to court or video phone and they

get released back to the streets. No one's going to jail for trespass. No one's going to to jail for littering. No one's going to jail for drug paraphernalia. So, please keep in mind as you make your frustrations known, nobody nobody is more frustrated than my officers who are out there doing their job every day to make you safe. Call us. Tell us where it's at. If they take too long, call me. I'll figure it out why it happened and I'll give you an answer. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. We'll address the issue. We can only be as good as you allow us to be, but you have to be a partner in that. Thank you. [applause]

I just want to give a clarification, too. I didn't realize this until our meeting the other day, but uh we do not have an anti-loitering law on the books in Delaware. So, um the state of Delaware evidently cannot prosecute when you don't have a law on the books against it. And the ACLU brought suit against Delaware for that when they were doing it. So that's why we have that problem until we go back up to do and put a law on the books and hope that our people up north will vote with us on that one. Um we we need to get an anti-ordering law on the books in order for them to be able to prosecute and hold them for that. So

I'm Lisha Kerpins 20006 Dun Road in Georgetown. Uh, first thing is thank thank everyone on the board because I know it's been tough lately. Um, of course I heard a lot of things and I know a lot of things and I'm actually out in the community myself talking to a lot of people. So the main purpose for me tonight is I'm outside of Georgetown, inside of Georgetown, outside of Georgetown. Georgetown is Georgetown and we still have to work together and things can get done better when people put their anger aside. Um, the next thing is because I'm over this part, but my concern is where the new courthouse is and the parking. Um, driving commercial vehicles, it is really tight. And when you get to on King Street, I think I said it right. And when you go to make the left, it is hard to turn because some cars is up to the line. And with the line being on King Street, we can't really see until we actually get up there. And a car had to try to they have to try to maneuver and so happened the car went on the other side by I know it was five at Dawn back in the day. I don't know what's the antique shop. They had to try to move and they was able to. But if that can be considered to look at, it would be appreciated because even when two commercial vehicles are coming through there, somebody got to stop because people have trucks with big mirrors or the commercial mirrors which is actually dangerous. So if you can take consideration, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Let's go.

Dennis Winds and Reed, 23365 Park Avenue, Georgetown. Um, Chief Holm has been doing and guys have been doing a fantastic job. And I just wanted to say Saturday I was over at uh Walmart actually at the pet store having my dogs nails trimmed and giving her a bath. and coming out, I saw someone at the intersection of uh 113 and College Park Drive panhandling. So, as soon as I got home, I looked up the non-emergency number for the police department, gave him a call and said, "Hey, you've got a guy out there if you get a chance, you know, just to let you know there's somebody out there." So, if we can give him a hand, then just let him know when we see things. Uh the non-emergency number is on the uh website. You know, I it's very easy to find. I would it be okay if I shared it, chief?

Yes. Okay. Okay.

Let me just say that if you call the non-emergency number, there's not a guarantee that that that call for service will be captured. So 911 is our is our dispatch center. They dispatch the Georgetown Police. Call 911. When you do that, in addition to the questions they're going to ask you that will help the officer, they'll also generate a number, a call for service number. Every one of those has to have a report with it. That gives me the opportunity to do some data analyzation to figure out where our problems are, that kind of stuff. If you just call in and say, "Hey, uh, uh, Linda, uh, I got this problem over here." She'll take down notes and she has them in her notebook, but uh there's no guarantee from that notebook to an officer whether it's going to get on a piece of paper. So, please call 911 for these things that are happening in your presence so that we can address them at that point. If it's during the day, myself, my deputy, and the lieutenant in charge of the detectives will leave our building and go handle it ourselves if our people are tied up. So, it's important to us if you dial 911, that's going to generate a complaint number. We'll have that report and I'll have all the data and [snorts] the times we got called to this location or that and we can better serve you. Thank you.

Wasn't aware of that. I was trying to avoid calling 911 because it's not an emergency. But, and Chief, I I think you need a raise because this way you can afford a razor and some shaving cream. Thank you very much. Have a good night. Anybody else? Motion to adjurnn. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Second by saying I. I. Opposed. Thank you. Have a good evening everybody. A mark. Why don't we see this?