Over a period of several years dating as far back as 2000, neighbors in what has recently been called the “West Wing” by New Castle County (NCC) Land Use Department were keeping their eyes on a particular piece of undeveloped farmland.
The farmland is approximately 200 acres close to the Maryland border, not too far south of the C&D canal. It was slated for a subdivision to be called “Country Club Estates”. Over the years, the developer submitted a variety of plans that typically represented approximately 100 single family homes. Prospective homebuyers in the surrounding neighborhoods were aware of the plans and made home buying decisions based on the plans they saw submitted. Only 20-30 homeowners lived on properties immediately adjacent to the undeveloped field. There was no coherent organization.
In 2021, a new yellow sign on the side of the road popped up. Once again a new plan had been submitted. But this time, it wasn’t single family homes. It was now hundreds of single family homes, townhomes, and apartments. Yet it’s not the change in housing type that is the top concern of the neighboring communities: it’s the surge of demand this will place on infrastructure in the area.
Our eyes were opened to the fact this is not occurring only in the “West Wing”, and the impacts affect all MOT residents. If you are a MOT resident who does not live in the “West Wing”, the impacts of the population influx in that area will certainly have broad ramifications on the MOT area in general e.g. driving over the Summit Bridge. All MOT residents are aware of the lack of emergency services… the overcrowded schools that require referendum after referendum… country roads that cannot handle higher traffic… and lack of public transportation to name only a few infrastructure concerns. The “West Wing” area next to the Maryland border on the outskirts of MOT is a prime example of an area where infrastructure is insufficient for the current housing demand, let alone higher demand.
Upon meeting with multiple elected officials from both the county and state, “West Wing” neighbors had a crash course in the ABC’s of community engagement that sparked the origin of the MOT Alliance:
(1) A is for ACRONYM: TDR stands for Transfer of Development Rights. Essentially TDR enables housing density to be transferred from one parcel of land to another. TDRs are private transactions between land owners. What does this mean? It means a yellow sign that goes up does not guarantee ANYTHING about the actual development that will ultimately occur on that land; a developer can just allow that plan to expire and then resubmit with a higher density. We need transparency to the public, and assurance that when housing density rights are transferred the infrastructure of the receiving area has enough capacity.
(2) B is for BIGGER: We can’t do this without you. If each individual neighborhood continues to “fight” development plans one parcel at a time, we are giving away our power-in-numbers to the developers and county government. We need to think bigger than individual subdivisions, and bigger than even areas the county has grouped us into like Central Core or West Wing. We recognize democracy can be frustrating and bureaucratic, but we NEED to give our best effort to incorporate ALL voices from ALL demographics and STAY engaged.
(3) C is for COMMUNITY: The name of the department that does the planning in the county is uninspiring: “Land Use”. But what do we all live in, why did we all move here, and why do we all stay? For COMMUNITY. Things that make a community – libraries, schools, emergency services, walkability, businesses, residential areas, affordable housing, roadways, parks, community centers – THESE are things we must demand in the plans for MOT. The county is not adequately planning infrastructure based on their recent ordinance 21-036 and we must demand more infrastructure in the next revision of the New Castle County plan: NCC2050.
Responsible growth and development. We welcome growth, and we demand it to be responsible. No one knows the MOT community as well as you. Join us to make your voice heard.
