Lewes-area housing issue heats up

By BRUCE PRINGLE, Delaware Coast Press

Posted Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 6:24 am

Many residents of Henlopen Landing have decided that living next to a town house complex wouldn't be a very good idea.

Less than three weeks after homeowners in the Lewes-area development appeared resigned to seeing 138 town houses built at Plantation and Beaver Dam roads, they turned out more than a dozen strong to urge Sussex County Council to reject the project. They presented council with a petition, bearing 87 names, of community opposition to Bridle Ridge Properties L.L.C.'s proposal to build the units where single, detached homes -- like those in Henlopen Landing -- had been promised.

Bridle Ridge Properties also is the developer of Henlopen Landing, which is recorded as a 277-lot subdivision. Forty-six of the lots have yet to be created. The firm wants to scrap plans for those lots and combine the land they would occupy with another parcel, which is next to the subdivision, to form a 29-acre location for the proposed town houses.

The company's change of heart amounts to a "breach of trust," resident Bob Steinback told the council, which tabled the case after listening to about 90 minutes of testimony on Tuesday. The council can't vote on the proposal until the Sussex Planning & Zoning commission issues a recommendation.

Steinback, who spoke in support of the project during a lightly attended hearing before the planning-and-zoning Commission Oct. 11, said he joined the opposition after studying property-deed covenants that implied Henlopen Landing would contain only single homes. Bridle Ridge Properties is obligated to follow through on those agreements, he argued.

Another resident, Ed Mucha, said, "Our dream was to retire at the beach in a nice single-family community. We thought we had found it at Henlopen Landing."

Mucha called on the council to "stand up for the little guy."

But Preston Dyer, a partner in Bridle Ridge Properties, contended the town house complex would offer advantages that single homes would not -- greater community open space, for instance. Additionally, the town house owners would pay for all maintenance of a main street they would share with the existing residents, and the town house community would maintain a pond that would help improve drainage around existing homes.

Besides, Dyer said, building town houses on the tract next to Henlopen Landing would ensure that a busy store like the nearby Lowe's isn't developed there.

But Councilman George Cole emphasized that that land isn't zoned to contain a store or other commercial enterprise.