Sussex County shoots down RV park. (Lewes, Long Neck: 2013, homes, camping)

[James420]

Sussex County Council turned down a developer’s requests for zoning changes that would have allowed a 600-site seasonal RV campground west of Plantations Road, just outside Lewes.

The Council voted 3-2 Tuesday not to approve a land use request from Jack Lingo Asset Management for the Love Creek RV Resort and Campground.

Council members Joan Deaver, George Cole and Michael Vincent cast the three no votes, saying they didn’t think a zoning change from GR-1 general residential zoning to AR-1 agricultural residential was justified. The campground Lingo Asset Management sought to build on the site could only work on AR-1 zoned land, under county code.

Opponents of the project, many of whom live near it, have said a campground would be out of character there, and said the roads and the Love Creek waterway would both be overwhelmed by it. A top state environmental official has also said the site is “worthy of permanent protection” for ecological reasons.

But the council members who opposed the campground indicated they’d have no objection if the land were developed within the confines of its current residential zoning, which would include single-family homes, manufactured housing and explicitly affordable housing.

The developers, in a 2013 public hearing, had made the case that their proposed use of the land would put fewer cars on the local roads than a residential development and said they’d factored in protections for wetlands and rare species. Opponents still testified the area’s roads would be crushed by traffic to and from the 600 proposed campsites.

Councilman Sam Wilson, who along with Vance Phillips cast yes votes for the rezoning, said he saw the matter simply as a property rights issue, and didn’t want to deny Lingo Asset Management its ability to use the land as it wanted.

“I think property rights are controlled in Russia and China and these places. But not in the United States,” Wilson said.



Mr Wilson please, can I put a shed on a property without it being controlled? Give me a break!!

[pete lynch]

Mr Wilson please, can I put a shed on a property without it being controlled? Give me a break!!

Or be charged for half a dozen inspections before you can legally park your lawnmower in it.

I heard on WXDE yesterday that they did approve a smaller RV park on Long Neck road.

[longnecker]

Interestingly the 2 Councilmen who voted for the project represent areas far from Lewes. It is good to see the Council digging in and stopping some thing like this. The road coming from the proposed area would not safely handle traffic pulling large camping trailers.
Those of us on Long Neck are not looking forward to our increased traffic.