Even with a decline in residential development applications in both New Castle and Kent in 2022, the high number in Sussex boosted the state as a whole to a 51% increase.
Applications for 7,676 units in Sussex in 2022 were about 89% of the state total of 8,617.
While development applications show what’s proposed, residential building permits show what's approved for construction.
Those permits declined in Delaware by 14% from 2021 to 2022, with only Kent County showing an increase.
Sussex still led the way with the most residential building permits in 2022 with 4,772, about 65% of the state total of 7,315.
But the growth comes at a cost.
“Many residents are finding that coastal Sussex is becoming overwhelmed by higher traffic and rising housing costs,” the study reported. “Furthermore, the middle-class and the local workforce are increasingly being priced out of the market.”
Peninsula Lakes on Bay Farm Road in Millsboro June 7, 2021.
Public meeting about state planning report Jan. 9
The Sussex Preservation Coalition was set to host a meeting with the director and principal planner from the Office of State Planning Coordination on Tuesday, Jan. 9.
“The state report is documentation and analysis of what we residents experience every day,” said coalition president Jane Gruenebaum. “The runaway growth has been so destructive to our environment and has led to traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and insufficient healthcare services.”
The small-town environment and natural beauty of the area are being lost, she said, and the coalition is trying to work with Sussex County Council on solutions.
“We can do both. We can have development, but development that is responsible and coordinated to preserve our forests, wetlands and farmland,” she said.
Gruenebaum also favors connecting neighborhoods to help reduce traffic congestion and improve safety.
Many developments only have one entrance, so all the traffic from that neighborhood has to use a main road. If more connections were made between neighborhoods and from neighborhoods to shopping centers, then everyone wouldn’t have to use a main road all the time and it would be easier to walk and bicycle to shop, eat at a restaurant or visit someone in another neighborhood.
As far as safety concerns, if the only entrance to a neighborhood is blocked because of a fire or car accident, getting out of the neighborhood by car would be difficult and maybe impossible, with potentially disastrous consequences if residents needed to evacuate in an emergency. If connector roads were built between neighborhoods, there would be other ways to evacuate.
Delaware’s housing market is “an unsustainable mismatch between housing supply, housing prices, demographics and incomes,” said David Edgell, director of the Office of State Planning Coordination.
“Housing affordability is no longer just an issue for the lowest of incomes, it is affecting many Delawareans,” he said in the state planning report. “The building industry is producing plenty of houses, but too many of them are expensive homes for the resort and retirement markets. As a result, households with higher incomes, even those above the median, are unable to afford a home.”
The president of the Sussex Preservation Coalition agreed.
“Development has driven up the cost of housing so much that middle-class families can’t afford to live here -- teachers, nurses, hospital workers,” said Gruenebaum. “Many people who work in restaurants and stores can’t afford to live in the area where they work. That’s a huge, huge problem.”
A possible solution cited in the state planning report is to promote a variety of housing styles for different market segments located around community services and facilities, but that “will require actions from legislators, government agencies and private developers.”
Some of the obstacles cited in the report include:
Affordable housing developments often face strong community opposition.
The predominant residential zoning is single-family homes, which limits housing options and creates barriers for some.
Housing at lower price points is often not located near opportunities, such as jobs and high-performing schools.
“The missing piece is making the business case work for developers to build more units in the middle,” the report said. “Without private investments, government funding alone is not enough to produce the number of affordable units needed.”
Assistance programs for people with lower incomes are crucial but don’t address middle-level buyers due to income restrictions.
While multi-family housing is usually more affordable than single-family homes, only 28% of the residential building permits in Delaware issued from 2018 to 2022 were for multi-family units. New Castle had the highest percentage with 44% of permits for multi-family units, while Sussex had 30% and Kent had 6%.
In the planning report, a housing unit was considered multi-family if two or more building permits were approved on the same tax parcel. This included apartments, condominiums and manufactured homes in land-lease communities.
Other possible solutions for more affordable housing in the state planning report include:
Enhance the state’s role in housing governance by evaluating state laws, regulations and resources to identify effective changes and optimizing the use of subsidies and housing assistance programs.
Turn community opposition into support by informing communities about the benefits of more housing options.
Provide resources to modernize comprehensive plans and local land-use regulations, assisting local governments with increasing the types of homes, lot sizes, and densities permitted under zoning.
Offer incentives for developers to build more affordable housing.
Designate shovel-ready developments that already have a master plan guided by state standards with permits, reducing the timeline for developers.
Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate and development news. Reach him at rmace@gannett.com.
