Milton planners reject medical office plans

Citing concerns about traffic, wellhead protection, deed restrictions and the effects on neighborhood character, Milton Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that Town Council not rezone a Mulberry Street parcel to make way for a medical office complex.

The commission said there were still far too many unanswered questions about the use of the property to move forward. The consensus of the commissioners was “good idea, wrong place.”

“We don’t know what the final makeup of it will be,” Commissioner Maurice McGrath said. “I think we have a need for it, but right there, in that spot, I don’t think is a good place for it.”

Chairman Richard Trask said, “I think the project is an extremely useful and necessary project within the town of Milton. We don’t have enough doctors; we don’t have enough nurses. But putting those facilities in the right place is better than trying to shove it in a downtown area.”

Developer Phoenix Holdings had proposed two, 40,000-square-foot medical office buildings - one to be occupied by Beebe Healthcare - to be built on an 8-acre site on Mulberry Street across from H.O. Brittingham Elementary School. In order to build the buildings, Phoenix Holdings requested to rezone the parcel from R-1 residential to C-1 commercial. 

The commission was tasked with forming an advisory opinion for consideration by Town Council; a first meeting was held in January, and the proposal was met with considerable opposition from citizens. That meeting was continued in order for the commission to review comments from the state’s Preliminary Land Use Service, which were received Feb. 19.

Because the application was for an advisory opinion, not a public hearing, Trask was not obligated to take public comment. While he did take comment at the January meeting, he did not take comment at the March 11 meeting. That didn’t stop the packed audience at Milton library from making their feelings known throughout the meeting; several times, Trask had to bang his gavel and ask the audience to stop talking. 

Chris Selzer, principal owner of Phoenix Holdings, said his family has a long history in Milton and sought to bring large-scale medical services that would benefit the town. The proposed Beebe facility would include labs, walk-in care and specialists.

“We’re going to be good stewards,” Selzer said. “This is a community project for people who are from the community and who live in the community.”

He said his mother-in-law, Jerry Ann McLamb, who died in 2018, had worked for Beebe and lived in Milton and it had been her desire to have some kind of care facility in Milton for people who could not make the drive to Lewes or Wilmington.

John Paradee, attorney for Phoenix Holdings, said state agencies, including the Office of State Planning Coordination, have supported the project. 

Paradee said Delaware Department of Transportation did not foresee serious traffic issues, a statement that drew snickers from the audience. Residents and members of the commission expressed concern over traffic problems on Mulberry Street, a busy roadway with a school and a doctor’s office in the vicinity of the proposed complex. Commissioner Lynne Ekelund said in the summer, Mulberry Street is used as a cut-through for traffic trying to get to the beaches. 

Paradee said DelDOT determined that traffic at the complex would not interfere with traffic at the school. He said traffic at the complex would be less than traffic at Dogfish Head Brewery and at Cannery Village, which he said serves 519 homes. Commissioner George Cardwell, a resident of Cannery Village, said that development only had 250 homes. 

Responding to questions about the size of the two buildings, Paradee said the project would have a similar footprint to Irish Eyes and the Mercantile.  

“That’s not true!” audience members shouted. 

Residents and committee members had raised concerns about what could happen if the property is rezoned and Phoenix Holdings does not build a medical office complex at the site. The town’s C-1 zoning code allows 87 different uses, leading to worries that almost anything could be built there. To ease those concerns, Paradee offered voluntary deed restrictions to ensure that should the property be rezoned, it could only be used for medical office space.

Commissioner Maurice McGrath wondered how the town could enforce those restrictions. 

“I don’t know how the town could hold you to this,” McGrath said. 

Paradee said language could be put into the restrictions to make it easy for the town to enforce. When asked by Cardwell whether this sort of restriction had been done in any other municipality, Town Solicitor Seth Thompson said it has not been done in Milton but it has been done in Sussex County. 

The commissioners grilled Thompson over who had responsibility for enforcement. Thompson said it would be individual homeowners who would have to seek recourse through the courts via an injunction. Thompson and Paradee both said the restrictions could undergo additional rewrites to be better fleshed out, but the commission was not comfortable moving forward without this critical missing piece of the puzzle.

Trask said, “We’re here to protect our town and our residents. I don’t like things going through the planning and zoning committee that are not fully prepared.”

The commission asked Paradee and Selzer about moving the project out to Route 16. Both Paradee and Selzer said working with Beebe, they determined that Mulberry Street was the perfect location because it would provide easy access for community medical services. 

Paradee and Selzer said Beebe has made clear to them that if they cannot have this site, the project will not go forward, a statement the committee interpreted as a threat. 

Paradee said, “This is the only location where this can happen. If it can’t happen here, it can’t happen anywhere in Milton. If Beebe walks, we’re done. If Beebe doesn’t come to this site, the project is dead.”

Trask said the location of the facility is also concerning because it is within the town’s well field, and could potentially have a negative effect on the town’s drinking water.  

While the commission is recommending not to approve the rezoning, town council could overrule their opinion and approve the project anyway, but as the meeting wrapped, Trask summed up the feelings of the five commission members. 

“We encourage you to look for another site,” Trask said.