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An eerie, or perhaps pleasant, calm has presided over New Castle County's comprehensive rezoning process in recent months.
But this calm may be tested soon. New Castle County plans to introduce rezoning plans next week for the high-growth districts south of the canal in the county's district 12 — setting the stage for the Department of Land Use's first big test of its new, high-information public rollout of land-use decisions.
In case you forgot, the usually bureacratic process of rezoning became briefly the biggest political controversy in New Castle County, as a group of citizens banded together on social media, held fiery community meetings and showed up to protest at usually sleepy planning board meetings.
The hullabaloo was all about an comprehensive rezoning ordinance, 23-083, that would have rezoned 84 parcels in one fell swoop. This ordinance was designed to align the county rezoning map with state law, and with a comprehensive plan already approved by the New Castle County Council in June 2022.
But opponents said the process wasn't transparent, and would perhaps smooth the way for unwanted industrial or warehouse development without much opportunity for comment from the public. The resulting outcry effectively killed the county rezoning ordinance, but state law still requires the rezoning to happen. So now it's happening much more slowly, and so far much more quietly. Instead of one big rezoning ordinance, there are now ten smaller ones, unleashed in five batches.
The new plan has also involved a much more comprehensive public rollout of information about each site being rezoned, in public "meetings "open houses" held by council members in each district. The Department of Land Use has added a new web page with information about important dates and public meetings.
Here's an update on the state of play with the "take two" of comprehensive rezoning
Comprehensive rezoning "take two" has been smooth sailing so far. Will this continue?
The first two public rezoning meetings, on the first two batches of comprehensive rezonings have already taken place without incident. The proposed rezonings in council districts 1, 3 and 10 are viewable here, and have already sailed through a planning board meeting without public opposition or comment.
Notably, all of these rezonings are relatively dull "downzonings" meant to preserve open space by turning commercial or industrial zones into "suburban" zones.
The same goes for the rezonings in council districts 2, 4 and 8 (viewable here), which will be presented at the next public planning board meeting on May 7. All 9 parcels being considered are, again, formerly commercial zones planned to be preserved as open space.
But now we're moving south of canal, and things might get trickier.
Most rezonings proposed for Councilman Bill Bell's sprawling district 12 are also routine open-space rezonings. However, a few more significant commercial rezonings are also part of the comprehensive proposed rezoning ordinance, along Dupont Highway in St. Georges Hundred.
These include commercial rezonings of a currently suburban-zoned 23-acre tract where plans exist for a 100,000-square-foot retail development at 2105 Dupont Highway.
County documents specify that developer Holland Properties, LLC plans a "single tunnel car wash, a 2,475 square foot auto quick lube shop, a 2,800 square foot auto tire store, and 44,073 square feet of retail (which includes a 2,677 square foot vehicle rental facility.)"
A nearby set of parcels totaling about 10 acres along Dupont Highway are also due for commercial regional or commercial neighborhood rezoning. One of these parcels includes the Shoppes of St. George at 2394 Dupont Highway, where a commercial rezoning on part of the plot would allow the shopping center to add an additional 13,000 square feet of retail space.
The district 12 comprehensive rezoning ordinance is set to be introduced at New Castle County Council at the April 23 meeting, setting in motion a months-long period of public presentation and comment before anything is decided.
The public meeting on the ordinance has yet to be announced, but will be detailed on the rezoning page on the Department of Land Use website.
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