A petition circulating online asking Sussex County to place a building moratorium for one year is gaining momentum despite experts warning that such a moratorium could be devastating to the county economy. Sussex County Council heard overwhelmingly from constituents who cautioned them not to place such a moratorium.
“Home building is one of the largest industries in our state, and impacts thousands of families. We commissioned a study in home building in Delaware by the National Association Builders,” Mike Ryman, president of the Home Builder’s Association of Delaware and owner of Becker Morgan Group. “Home building accounts for $1.6 billion in economics in Delaware, $380 million of tax revenue, and 20,000 jobs. These are not temporary jobs. Building a home for someone is about participating the American dream, where families start and grow, where communities are formed and where lasting relationships are forged.”
Ryman continued, stating that the American dream was out of reach for many, not because they have built too many homes but because they have not built enough.
“In 1991, we built about a million homes per year in the United States. That increased to 1.8 million around 2007 and then the bottom fell out,” Ryman said. “The country turned off home building. The country stopped building. In 2022, we just got back to a million homes a year. Think about that. It has taken us almost 20 years to get back to where we were in 2007. We lost a young engineer a couple years out of school. She liked her job. She was great. We liked her, but she couldn’t afford a home so she left the area and moved back with her parents so she could save enough money to buy a home. So, we lost a good, young professional because of housing.”
Some felt that the moratorium was not the answer but that the county should look at the cost of housing, creating more affordable housing for the workforce rather than building expensive homes that were out of reach for many young people.
“We strongly oppose any proposal to establish a building moratorium as we believe this approach would have significant unequal consequences, threatening local jobs and businesses and further exasperating our state’s workforce housing crisis,” Ed Capadonna, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Delaware, said. “A moratorium would likely lead to a sharp decline in local businesses, new construction and development opportunities. Slowing or stopping development would jeopardize well-paying jobs, reduce investment in community projects and inadvertently deepen housing shortages, drive up prices and exclude working families from securing housing.”
Capadonna believed that balanced solutions that address infrastructure and preserve the unique character of Sussex County while expanding affordable housing was a better answer. Another speaker pointed out that a one-year moratorium was not a one-year moratorium, but more like four years as it could take that long to create a plan for development.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to recruit new physicians, physician assistants, nurses, clinicians to ensure residents get the healthcare access they need without leaving our county,” Dr. David Tam, President and CEO of Beebe Healthcare, said. “A building moratorium will greatly impact the recruitment of these healthcare professionals. It is important to remember that ay healthcare professional we bring in requires the hiring of up to five other staff, nurses, technicians, physical therapists, and other healthcare workforce members, all of whom will need a place to live.”
Not everyone who spoke was against the moratorium, expressing concerns about traffic.
“The Scenic Harbor development is constructing 319 homes on Mulberry Knoll Road and what this has done is increase the number of homes on a 1.6-mile road by 400 percent,” Jack Vasilotti said. “There’s heavy construction volume and that has made this road riddled with potholes. There is the Center at Love Creek, a retail development that is supposed to bring 13,000 vehicles a day. Where does this stop? A moratorium makes sense and county council needs to be sensible. You need to travel these roads to see this. Give farmers some incentive for preservation, re-examine proposals to slow down, and if needed, stop rapid growth.”
Jill Hicks, President of the Sussex Preservation Coalition, stated that her organization had argued that growth in Sussex County was irresponsible and excessive, outpacing infrastructure, including but not limited to roadway capacity, school facilities, staffing needs of the education system, emergency services and the healthcare system. However, her statement about the education may have been incorrect.
A review of enrollment numbers, comparing Delaware Department of Education public information for 2020-21 to 2024-25 indicates there was not significant growth in student enrollment over the last five years in Delaware. Overall, Sussex County schools did see the most growth in the state with just over 2,000 students across nine districts. New Castle County schools saw a drop in enrollment of 695 students while Kent County saw an increase of just over 500 students. The average enrollment increase in Sussex was 228 students over a five-year period with Cape Henlopen seeing the largest growth with 762 new enrollments.
Hicks was also concerned about greenspace in the county.
“The damage caused by the clear cutting of forest, the loss of wetlands, pollution of inland bays and waterways allowed by the county’s insufficient planning will be this generation’s legacy, injurious conditions left to the next generation,” Hicks said. “This is unacceptable. Everyone is frustrated because, to date, council has not addressed this. Public consensus across the county is that county council has not had the political will to take the actions needed. A moratorium should be issued as a last resort, Sussex Conservation agrees, but the county has reached a crisis.”
Hicks asked the council to do three things – within 30 days make a commitment to work diligently to end the environmental crisis; within three months, develop a plan for engaging stakeholders, including county officials, agencies, the public and the development community, that outlines specific steps and timelines to review the current lands and gain a consensus on how to move forward. Finally, demonstrated progress within six months and, if progress is not made, the issuance of a moratorium until those goals are met.
“As a former two-term council person in Milford, I understand campaign promises, I understand what it means to the constituents who voted for you,” Jamie Burk, referring to comments that the voting public had spoken when the elected new council members in November. “But when I look at what this will do to the workforce and as an employer, it has a huge effect on my job as town manager of Millsboro. I have to provide water, sewer and police services for our residents. When I hear of a new business coming to Millsboro, I am not worried about sewer and water, I am worried about housing. If we put that moratorium on today, we will have even more trouble recruiting and retaining the best and brightest.”
Burk continued, stating that when he ran for council it was to make Sussex County a place where his kids would want to return and raise their families.
“My kids can’t afford to live here,” Burk said. “My daughter will graduate from UD in May, and I don’t know how she will afford to live here, so she’ll likely move somewhere else. We’re losing one of the best and someone I love, so a moratorium is not the answer to deal with this crisis.”
Ken Christenberry agreed with Burk, stating that listening to others speak he began to be concerned that the half dozen people working for him in his engineering firm may be told they have to work somewhere else because he did not have any work for them.
“I’m going to suggest that the biggest problem lies in Dover,” Christenson said. “DelDOT has known how rapidly Sussex is growing and I recall seeing plans 25 years ago for the overpasses in Millsboro. This growth has been coming, yet it took 25 years for DelDOT to get caught up. I think that is where we need to focus our attention, pushing DelDOT to move more quickly to address traffic concerns.”
Several council members agreed that a moratorium was a heavy-handed way to manage growth. New council member Mike Lloyd, who brought the idea of a moratorium to council, stated that he would take into consideration all the comments and work with county planning to create a plan that would address growth while not damaging the economy.
