Milford City Council approved deed restrictions for the new Milford Corporate Center, located on Canterbury Road. The restrictions were discussed by council in February.
“The Planning Department and Economic Development Department worked with Emery Hill along with Moore and Rutt to finalize the deed restrictions for the center,” Rob Pierce, City Planner, said. “A couple of the main highlights, the restrictions are prepared in a manner in which city council would retain ownership and responsibility, similar to what we have set up for independence Commons and the Greater Milford Business Park. So, we currently do the maintenance for the storm water and common areas at this time for those two facilities. We have this set up where Council will retain ownership until such time they may decide to transfer that over to a formal maintenance corporation that would be operated by the owners of the Corporate Center, similar to a homeowners association for a residential development. I thought that was important, and then we talked about that at the workshop, or back in February, the council still wanted to have control, but there may be a desire in the future to relinquish maintenance responsibilities to somebody else.”
In addition, the Planning Commission would serve as the architectural review committee since there is not a formal maintenance corporation. The Planning Commission already performs that duty for the other industrial parks in Milford.
“Lastly, the Architectural Review guidelines were modified from what we saw back February. They’re now under Section 5.15 the first bullet point in that section refers to a list of materials that’s very similar to what we have for independence Commons,” Pierce said. “One of the things that we had come up with working with Emery Hill was to require a certain percentage of the front of the building that had to be glass. So we have a one foot to 20 foot ratio, so 5% of the front building facade would have to be glass, which will brighten it up a little bit. And there are some masonry requirements for the front and side that are listed out in that section as well.”
Pierce continued, explaining that some of these restrictions must be recorded in Sussex County.
“It should be noted that these restrictions have to get recorded with Sussex County, ideally, before any properties are sold that way, the buyers are very familiar with what the restrictions are going to be. So we’re hoping that this is one of those last items that gets addressed before we can really start marketing, fully marketing the property,” Pierce said. “So with that, staff is recommending Council authorized mayor to sign the restrictions for the Corporate Center for which they for which one staff will be recording these with the county.”
When asked if the deed restrictions follow law, Pierce explained he did not think the commercials have to follow things like the turnover, like a residential development would, but there has to be language in these restrictions referring to a maintenance corporation that could be established at a later date.
The deed restriction were approved unanimously.
