Sussex County meeting probes traffic, safety and timing concerns for Atlantic Fields rezoning

At a Sussex County Council meeting, DelDOT staff, traffic consultants, residents and attorneys discussed transportation, safety and timing questions tied to a rezoning request (CZ2037) to allow a planned commercial center at Route 24 and Mulberry Knoll Road.

DelDOT subdivision engineer Wendy Velasco summarized Capital Transportation Program (CTP) timing and projects that factor into the proposal’s Traffic Impact Study (TIS). Velasco said Plantation Road Phase 2 right-of-way is planned for fiscal years 2027–2029 and that preliminary engineering for the Airport Road extension is scheduled for FY2025–2026. She noted the Mulberry Knoll Road extension design phase has been requested to begin after sufficient Transportation Improvement District (TID) collections were reached. “The TIS letter itself is a 70-page long, and it takes a pretty thorough look at traffic in the area,” a consultant from McCormick Taylor said during the presentation.

Why it matters: Council members and many residents pressed officials on how long off-site capacity improvements will take and whether developer and state timelines will align. Those answers affect whether the area will experience years of higher congestion before planned CTP projects are constructed.

Traffic counts and capacity projections were a central point of debate. Consultants and residents quoted figures from the TIS and related analyses: the applicant’s TIS estimates the development would add roughly 26,000 daily vehicle trips (ADT) attributed to the project’s entrances; one reviewer, Tucker Smith of Farmer Taylor, said a rough projection for Route 24’s 2045 ADT is about 31,000 vehicles per day. DelDOT and consultants said the corridor’s theoretical capacity was roughly between 32,000 and 36,000 vehicles per day in sections with dual lanes and turn lanes, though operations at signalized intersections determine actual throughput.

Opponents questioned the timing and funding of corridor improvements. An attorney representing the Route 24 Alliance and the Rehoboth Mall limited partnership, Fred Misuffer, read from planning documents and told the council that the state strategies maps are “not parcel based” and that being mapped as a growth area does not guarantee immediate infrastructure funding. He urged the council to consider that many DelDOT improvements cited in the TIS might not be built for years, saying that even if everything in the TIS advanced on schedule, some off-site improvements were not projected to be completed until 2045.

Supporters emphasized local benefits. Dr. Chris Hafer, a resident of Scenic Harbor Way, told the council he and neighbors support rezoning to commercial C-4 and cited potential local jobs and new retail options, including an anchor store that could offer competitive grocery pricing and employee benefits. “I am here today … to voice my strong support in favor of CZ2037 for the proposed rezoning,” Hafer said.

Pedestrian safety and school access also drew repeated questions. Velasco said frontage improvements are required, that the developer will be required to provide pedestrian access along its frontages, and that fences and signalized crossings are being used to channel pedestrians to controlled crossings. She noted the developer will be required to provide internal sidewalks and bus stops; she also said DelDOT continually collects counts and reevaluates project timing as TID and other funding become available.

On other technical points, Velasco and consultants said: not all added trips are new trips (some are redirected or stop-on-route trips), vehicle trip assignments are prorated across the network, and roundabout truck aprons and turning templates are designed to accommodate large vehicles.

Council action recorded in the transcript: members moved and approved a five-minute recess during the meeting; no final council decision on the CZ2037 rezoning appears in the provided transcript.

What’s next: The rezoning and any required subsequent site-plan approvals will return to the council for formal action at a later meeting. The transcript shows continued community debate over the adequacy and timing of DelDOT projects, the reliability of TID funding, pedestrian safety near schools, and whether additional site-level engineering should be completed before a land-use vote.