Council authorizes notices for public hearing on Millville sewer district annexation for Hocker property

Sussex County Council on May 13 authorized the engineering department to prepare and post notices for a public hearing on annexing the Hocker property into the Unified Sanitary Sewer District serving Millville.

County planner John Ashman presented the request on behalf of the property owner and the applicant's engineering firm, identifying the parcels as Tax Map 134-12-170 and 134-12-370.02. The parcels are adjacent to the existing Millville area sewer service and are located on Route 13/Route 17 Roxana Road in a State Planning Level 2 area. Mr. Ashman said the project received preliminary site plan approval from the town of Millville on June 13, 2024, and that the properties would pay system connection charges in effect at the time of connection.

Why it matters: Annexation into the Unified Sanitary Sewer District would allow the parcels to connect to county sewer infrastructure; the action at the May 13 meeting only authorized notice for a public hearing, not the annexation itself.

Formal action

Motion: Authorize the Sussex County engineering department to prepare and post notices for the Hocker property expansion of the Unified Sanitary Sewer District to include parcels 134-12-170 and 134-12-370.02, as presented on May 13, 2025. The motion passed unanimously.

Next steps

Engineering staff will prepare and post the public hearing notices and return to council for the hearing and any subsequent annexation vote. The properties will be subject to system connection charges in place at the time of actual connection.

Ending

No annexation vote was taken on May 13; the council's authorization enables the public-notice process required before a formal annexation hearing and decision.