Sussex County residents who complain about our out-of-control traffic and overcrowded schools have an opportunity to elect a new county council member with a fresh point of view. Jane Gruenebaum advocates curbing development in Sussex and putting our community needs first.
In Jane’s own words, “Enough with the mega-developments, enough with the traffic, enough with the months-long wait for a doctor’s appointment, enough with the crowded classrooms, enough with the status quo that benefits a few and leaves the rest of us paying the consequences … I’m not opposed to all growth … but we need a reset.”
Jane co-founded the Sussex Preservation Coalition, whose mission is to increase the effectiveness of groups and individuals working to promote resiliency, sustainability and climate adaptation in Sussex County. SPC now numbers more than 4,000 people. Its goals clearly struck a nerve among county residents eager to tap the brakes on development.
A strong spokesperson for saving our beautiful natural resources in Sussex, Jane said in a Sept. 18, 2023, article, “Sussex County has no protections for its forests, trees or woodlands. All the surrounding jurisdictions have protections for forestlands.” She pointed out that Sussex forests are disappearing while Kent and New Castle counties have added to their forestland.
Meanwhile, two of the three county council incumbents running for re-election lost their primaries in September. Michael Vincent in District 1 and Cynthia Green in District 2 were soundly rejected by voters determined to stop the steady rubber-stamping of developments.
Mark Schaeffer in District 3 should be next. Aware that the voters are fed up with overdevelopment, he is now billing himself as a fighter against urban sprawl. This is nonsense. His record on county council tells a different story. In the last three-and-a-half years, Schaeffer voted yes on more than 200 applications from developers, with just a handful of abstentions and no votes.
Schaeffer is now claiming in postcards mailed to many county residents that he stopped the Royal Farms on Route 24.“This is untrue,” Angie Domeneck said in a Sept. 27 letter to the Cape Gazette. Rather, it was the hard work of the activists in the Route 24 Alliance that resulted in withdrawal of the permit application – not anything Shaeffer did.
The chairman of the Preserve Sussex political action committee that is paying for Mark’s postcards is Scott Dailey, “a self-described broker, builder, [and] developer” according to an Aug. 26 article. A second postcard claims that Schaeffer will fight against traffic congestion, yet his record reveals little concern about traffic.
Continued overdevelopment is not inevitable. County council must exercise its authority to pass ordinances to moderate development, including adjusting by-right development to better preserve agricultural land, passing development-related fees to benefit our schools and imposing requirements to preserve our forests. It only takes policymakers who are motivated by vision and a genuine desire to serve Sussex. Jane Gruenebaum is the right policy maker for Sussex County.
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