Residents have been fighting long and hard to keep commercial development off Plantation Road. In spite of their efforts, if plans proceed, the first office complex will soon start going up along the roadway.
Over objections from residents who said Ocean Park professional and medical office complex was out of character in an area dominated by as many as 1,500 single-family homes, Sussex County Council voted 3-2 Tuesday, March 16, to approve a conditional use for developer Todd Bariglio. He plans to build two, 22,500-square-foot campus-style buildings on a 4.7-acre parcel at the intersection of Plantation and Cedar Grove roads.
Voting in favor of the application, Council President Vance Phillips, R-Laurel, said the passage of the conditional use allows county officials to place conditions on the project, lessen the impact on the community and reflect some of residents’ concerns. “This is a development district, and if they don’t go here, they will go elsewhere and clog up Route 1,” he said.
Councilman Mike Vincent, R-Seaford, said he would have preferred that the applicant applied for a zoning change and not a conditional use, but he supported the recommendation for approval given by the planning and zoning commission. “The residents in the area will need somewhere to go for professional offices,” he said.
Councilman Sam Wilson, R-Georgetown, also voted in favor of the application.
The developer plans to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification using green technology in construction with rainwater harvesting, green roof design, geothermal heating and air conditioning, natural lighting and natural materials.
The complex will be open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. A condition allowing Saturday hours, provided by the planning and zoning commission, was removed on the recommendation of Councilwoman Joan Deaver, D-Rehoboth Beach. The condition was placed in the minutes by mistake.
Council members George Cole, R-Ocean View, and Deaver provided several reasons for opposing the project.
Deaver called the Cedar Grove Road-Plantation Road intersection dangerous and said road improvements are not scheduled until at least 2014. She said traffic on Plantation Road is already heavy throughout the year and only increases during the summer season when motorists use the road as a bypass of Route 1.
“This is totally out of character for a residential area,” she said.
“It will stick out smack in the middle of 1,500 homes.”
She said she wasn’t convinced there was a need for more professional and medical office space in the area, and there was no other commercial conditional use in place along Plantation Road.
Cole said a zoning change to B-1 neighborhood business district would have been more appropriate.
“This is out of character in an AR-1 district, and it sets a precedent for more commercial growth in the area,” he said.
The original application for the project was a request for a zoning change from AR-1 to B-1, but the planning and zoning commissioner recommended denial of the application in favor of a conditional-use application. After that action, the developer withdrew the application and refiled it as a conditional use.
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