BETTER MODELS FOR DEVELOPMENT IN DELAWARE
Ideas for Creating More Livable and Prosperous Communities
Forword • Purpose • Principles • Values
Purpose of Better Models
Headlines like these are typical in many communities throughout Delaware. People are concerned about changes in their way of life -- decline in the character of their neighborhoods, increasing traffic congestion, encroaching commercial development, loss of farmland, open space and trees, deteriorating water quality or other environmental problems. Community change doesn't have to be traumatic, but often it is. As a result, the debate over how to accommodate new development is frequently loud and acrimonious and is almost always cast in either-or terms -- e.g. progress vs. preservation; jobs vs. the environment.
This book was written with the belief that this kind of debate is unproductive. The truth is development is inevitable, but the destruction of community character and natural resources that too often accompanies growth is not. Progress does not demand degraded surroundings. Delaware communities can grow without losing their beauty, history, or livability. Instead of debating whether growth will occur, we should be discussing the patterns of development: where we put it, how we arrange it, and what it looks like. If we start from this premise, communities can more easily balance conservation with economic development. What's more, the book presents many ideas on how to make development more profitable and less costly for both the developer and the community.
Delaware is a Special Place
Delaware is known worldwide for its productive agriculture, quaint small towns, booming beach resorts and rich natural beauty. The state's attractiveness, location, and natural resources have attracted settlers since early Colonial times. Between 1990 and 2000, the population of Delaware increased by almost 18%, while the national average was just over 13%. Over the next 30 years, Delaware is projected to add another 232,000 people, a population increase of almost 23%. While the population in big cities such as Wilmington is expected to decline, the population in Sussex County is projected to increase by over 36% by 2030.
Delaware residents are proud of their legacy. From Native Americans to early pioneers, from shad and sturgeon fishermen on the Delaware River to strawberry and tomato growers in Sussex County, from the workers at DuPont to the watermen of the Delaware Bay, Delaware residents have long recognized the state's unique assets: fertile farms, beautiful beaches, abundant forests, and magnificent natural areas like the Great Marsh, the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, or the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Delaware is also home to the Delaware Bay Estuary, whose wetlands have been recognized to have international importance.
Delaware is the first state, but it is also a small state, which is one reason we should respect the land. It is our birthright, and almost every inch of it is densely layered with our history. For a variety of economic, social, and psychological reasons, Delaware communities should do more to protect the land, and we should recognize that the landscape is the setting for all our architecture. New residential and commercial buildings can either intrude on the landscape, or they can be designed and sited to fit in to their natural surroundings. This book provides some ideas on how to do this.
Building on Livable Delaware
This book builds on Governor Minner's Livable Delaware agenda, a guide for managing growth in a way that protects our unique quality of life. Land-use decisions are made at the local government level, but the bulk of services and infrastructure in Delaware are provided by state taxpayers. Livable Delaware is an effort to align state, county and local decisions with five principles when determining how Delaware should grow:
- Guide growth to areas that are most prepared to accept it in terms of infrastructure and thoughtful planning;
- Preserve farmland and open space;
- Promote infill and redevelopment;
- Facilitate attractive affordable housing; and,
- Spend taxpayer money effectively while curtailing sprawl.
Since the Livable Delaware agenda was launched, almost every municipality throughout the state has taken steps to develop or update its comprehensive plan. Towns must plan for growth before they seek annexation. The state's Land Use Planning Act was overhauled so the state could provide more meaningful review and comment on development projects at the beginning of the process, rather than in the 11th hour.
The State Strategies for Policy and Spending provide a blueprint detailing where the state will make its investments, steering growth to municipalities and surrounding areas and away from rural Delaware. First adopted in 1999, the State Strategies provide the foundation for Livable Delaware.
More incentives are available to encourage the redevelopment of brownfields. A few progressive developers have proposed Traditional Neighborhood Design plans that create an old-fashioned sense of neighborliness with flexible lot sizes, back alleys, front porches, streetscaping, pocket parks and high quality architectural features.
Even during tight budget times, Delaware has put its money behind Livable Delaware's investment strategies. In 2002 the state stepped in to purchase the development rights of the 200-acre Blendt Farm in Smyrna. In a designated rural area west of Route 1, the historic family farm was slated for 460 houses but is now part of Delaware State University's agricultural research facilities. A continuing commitment to identifying and preserving critical Green Infrastructure throughout Delaware resulted in a request to set aside $40 million next year for open space and farmland preservation.
The commitment to preservation will continue. National organizations have recognized parts of Delaware as "endangered." American Farmland Trust's 1997 report, Farming on the Edge, ranked the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain, including all of Delaware, as one of the most threatened agricultural areas in the nation. Additionally, in 1999 Scenic America listed Kennett Pike as a "Last Chance Landscape," a threatened local treasure.
Most Delawareans love the land and support measures to protect it. Public opinion surveys and local planning and visioning exercises demonstrate this. In a survey conducted on "Delawareans Attitudes Toward Economic Growth," more than 75% of Delawareans believed that the owners of farms should be paid to keep land in agricultural use. Almost 80% believed that the state should buy more open spaces, parks, and greenways and almost 70% believed that more money should be spent for public transportation, walkways, and bikeways. In 1995, almost 50% of the people surveyed preferred to live in a home in the country: By 1998, however, this percent decreased by 10%. This may be because the countryside is rapidly disappearing.
Using Better Models
This publication presents six principles and more than 25 ideas for better development. Each principle is illustrated with numerous examples of alternatives to conventional development. There are many such models throughout Delaware and across the nation. Downtowns are being rejuvenated, open space is being preserved, historic buildings are being restored, and farmers are working to protect their way of life. Attractive new affordable, walkable, and mixed use developments are being constructed, and new transit systems are gaining awards and growing support.
These real-life examples, in contrast to the image of standard development, are glimpses into one possible future - a future where progress does not mean degraded surroundings. The coming decades will determine what subsequent generations experience here. Either Delaware's small towns and rural communities replicate the unsatisfying building patterns of fast -growing areas in other parts of the nation, or we take action now.
