Epic saga continues over Lewes library’s donated land

The recent controversy over a library book kiosk at The Villages of Five Points is a new chapter in the property's long-contentious story.

In 2011, the focus was on a proposed CVS, which now sits next to the embattled kiosk.

People for and against the pharmacy attended Sussex County Council meetings – some donning red shirts in support of CVS. The controversy, as reported in the Cape Gazette, was whether the entire 4-acre parcel should be reserved solely for community use. Sussex County Council unanimously approved a conditional use for the CVS project with conditions that the store would be built on 1.5 acres, and 2.5 acres would be donated to a nonprofit group for community use.

Council's decision hinged on advice from its attorney on a community covenant possibly restricting the parcel to community use by a nonprofit group. At the time, County Attorney David Rutt said he was satisfied the CVS application was legal.

The remaining 2.5-acre parcel was deeded to Lewes Public Library Dec. 31, 2012.

Attempt to halt CVS construction

Two years after county approved the CVS, The Villages of Five Points Property Owners Association sought to halt construction because they said the developer – Old Towne Point LLC – did not comply with a Sussex County ordinance.

This time, the Cape Gazette reported, the association said the only reason property owners supported the CVS was because they thought the land would go to the association if the library didn't use the remaining parcel within 10 years.

In an April 2013 article, library officials said they already had plans to build a reading garden to offer remote programming on a small section of the parcel. The library then planned to sell the rest of the property to raise funds for the library construction project, the article states.

An accountant hired by the association also said that the homeowners’ association would never get the land because it does not meet the IRS criteria for a nonprofit group. The deed states that if the association does not accept the land donation, the title would be transferred to New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lewes. The deed was approved by Sussex County officials as a condition of 2011 county approval.

During a 2013 interview with the Cape Gazette, Old Towne Point LLC developer Christian Hudson said it was always the intent to donate the parcel – valued at $3.8 million – to the library, which meets the definition of a charity. Even though the library chose another construction site for its new facility, he said, the library still accepted the land donation.

“I think the property owners association is mad because they didn't get the property, but we wanted the library to get it. It was a four-year ordeal to make it happen,” Hudson said in the 2013 article.

Controversy continues

Now in 2019, the long-standing battle over the donated parcel continues. Both The Villages of Five Points homeowners’ president John Eikrem and Lewes Public Library Board of Trustees President Hugh Leahy have declined to comment about ongoing discussions over the recently constructed book kiosk on a 2.5-acre parcel next to the CVS pharmacy. Leahy said a meeting is expected at the end of April.

The library book kiosk and two benches on a concrete slab were constructed in early March, prompting the homeowners’ association to fire off a resolution ordering the library take down the structure because it did not receive approval from the homeowner's association Architectural Committee.

The resolution levied $6,000 fines against the library with $50/day in penalties for every day that the kiosk remains.