Henlopen Acres submits CDP to state
Art league rezoning not in review
Henlopen Acres — The Henlopen Acres commissioners unanimously approved sending the five-year review of the town’s comprehensive development plan to the Office of State Planning Coordination for review.
Mayor Wanda Davis said the state would make suggestions and send it back.
"This is nowhere near final. It will be back,” she said.
Henlopen Acres’ comprehensive plan review will be entering the Preliminary Land Use Service, or PLUS process, a state review. State Planning Coordinator Connie Holland said PLUS is mandatory for all municipalities. She said even for five-year reviews with little to no changes, like Henlopen Acres, the state must still look over the plan.
Holland said the PLUS process involves all the major state agencies – Department of Transportation, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Department of Agriculture and the state housing authority, among others – which take part in the review of a comprehensive plan’s components. Agency comments are sent back to the municipality for incorporation in the plan.
Holland encouraged Henlopen Acres to send its plan into PLUS for review as soon as possible because it allows for state review while keeping the town’s options for changes open.
The plan's only controversy has been the Rehoboth Art League’s request to be rezoned to a cultural classification. The art league is zoned residential and has maintained that it cannot make basic improvements to its facilities under the existing zoning.
Henlopen Acres officials have said a change in zoning would be more appropriate when the town undertakes its 10-year rewrite of the plan in 2014.
Tensions between the town and the art league have been around for years; the two sides ended up in court after the board of adjustment ruled against a variance that would have allowed the art league build a new Chambers Building. That ruling was upheld by Sussex County Superior Court Judge T. Henley Graves.
At a Dec. 7 public hearing on the comprehensive plan, many comments were in favor of rezoning the art league.
While that meeting was reserved for public comment only, at the planning commission’s Jan. 9 meeting, Chairman John Barto said, “I am most concerned after reviewing all the information and listening to the testimony the amount of misinformation that some of our neighbors and outside organizations have regarding the RAL. This misinformation has caused problems for the town and the RAL by not understanding the process and the ordinances within the town.”
Addressing the art league’s desire to build a new Chambers Building, Barto said “I would cite that repair or replacement of a nonconforming use can take place through the board of adjustment process. Just because one proposal was denied does not mean that another would be. The RAL indicates that they are all for compromise; then I would suggest that they consider moving forward with other proposals that comply with the current (zoning) ordinance.”
Art league President Diana Beebe credited Barto with running an open process during the plan review. Beebe said the art league will continue to work within the town’s zoning regulations, although she hopes the town understands that the art league’s zoning needs to be considered in the 2014 review.
As for repairs, maintenance and sustainability for buildings such as the Chambers Building – which the art league has long maintained it has outgrown and cannot rebuild under its current zoning – Beebe said, “Whatever we have to do, we will go through the process that has been established, and we’ll see where it takes us. Right now, our designation doesn’t work, but right now, we have to work with what we have.”
