LEWES, Del.- A massive housing development called Henlopen Bluff took the spotlight at the Lewes Planning Commission's meeting Wednesday night.
The development aims to bring 79 houses to Gills Neck road near the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal.
This is not the first time the development has come in front of the commission, as it received its' recommendation in the past.
"This is a different situation than we have normally when we're having a hearing on a on a subdivision," explained planning commission chairperson Nancy Staisey. "Normally, we as a planning commission would typically have just one hearing on it....On this application, we recommended its approval, but we had a long list of conditions on it."
Saisey continued to explain that Mayor and City Council chose to send the recommendation with those conditions back for more discussion- but only a certain amount of conditions were sent back.
One of those conditions was what brought a large amount of people from the Showfield housing development to the meeting. According to attorney Bob Valihura, who represented Showfield at the hearing, one of those conditions was the construction of a "road to nowhere". He continued to say that this road- which would be required to be built in Henlopen Bluff but go into the Showfield development- infringes on property owner's rights.
"It's private property rights, rights that my client, the Master Association for the Community, the Homeowner's Association, has in the property," he said. "And the connection that's being proposed here is a somewhat of a dagger going into my client's property."
Valihura continued that the Showfield community is not against a walking path- but will not help build a road for vehicular travel.
The development has proven to be controversial in the past, with some people voicing concerns for even more traffic on an already busy Gills Neck road. But in the presentation tonight, developers said since there is already multiple developments in the immediate area, multiple traffic studies have already been conducted.
Public comment is still open until March 22.