Overfalls Preserve, aka the Warrington property, a 90-unit townhome project that has been annexed by the City of Lewes, poses a serious safety and traffic problem at the point where the Lewes-to-Georgetown Trail crosses Savannah Road. Residents of Overfalls Preserve and the adjacent Dutchman’s Harvest share an access to Savannah Road and will generate an additional 1,670 vehicle trips per day, about a 16% increase in Savannah Road’s already-high traffic volume.
This new traffic will create a safety hazard for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians near two schools and Beebe Healthcare on a road already experiencing heavy congestion multiple times a day. And there is more traffic coming. Overfalls Preserve will be connected to the 10.7-acre Plummer property (not yet for sale), that will allow it to use the same shared access to Savannah Road, further exacerbating traffic and safety problems.
Fortunately, relief is possible. A second Warrington property, 1.53 acres between the Mr. P’s Pizza shopping center and The Lodge, has frontage on Kings Highway. It can be interconnected to the nearby residential projects and provide a second access for residents. The owner hopes to rezone this property to commercial through Sussex County Council.
The solution requires coordinating decisions among the Lewes city government, Sussex County officials, and DelDOT, which often fail to synchronize their actions. But the effort is worthwhile. Beneficiaries will include future residents of the new developments, visitors and established residents using Savannah Road, as well as students heading for school and patients traveling to or being transported to Beebe Healthcare.
More broadly, the area needs another way to travel between these two Historic Lewes byways. Today, traffic connects between Savannah Road and Kings Highway using Cape Henlopen High School (recently restricted at the school’s request), Henlopen Gardens and DeVries Circle. These cut throughs were not designed to handle today’s heavy use.
The Historic Lewes Byway Committee has been monitoring these problems closely and now calls upon the responsible state and local governments to coordinate their efforts before it is too late to make improvements. The Lewes Planning Commission will consider this project at its meeting Tuesday, Oct. 15. Let’s get this right.
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