On the trail of more paper

We are supposed to be moving to a paperless workplace.

It's happening – but not at the speed of light – in Sussex County government. It amazes me how much paper is moved around the county's various departments.

And from what I've observed, Sussex County is not unique. Let's face it. Most of us over the age of 30 would rather have a piece of paper in our hand. Eventually, the trend will switch and more and more people will use devices rather than paper.

E-mails and computer files are saving a lot of paper, but in the Sussex planning and zoning office paper is king. Application files thicker than a couple copies of "War and Peace" are not unusual. And the more controversial an application, the more paperwork is generated.

Not only do developers and their agents provide a detailed book about the application, all forms of public comment are also kept in the official public record on file.

I have to admit, what's included within those files is interesting to read. There is more information than anyone would ever want to know. People who complain that Sussex County government is not transparent have not spent time reading an application file. The amount of work a developer must do to submit an application is unreal. I can't imagine the cost, and there is no guarantee the application will be approved.

It all adds up to a lot of paper that requires a lot of storage. Based on the current numbers for applications since the county started planning and zoning, there have been more than 11,500 board of adjustment cases, about 1,760 zoning-change requests and more than 2,000 conditional-use applications since 1971. Subdivision applications are filed by the year and not in consecutive order, and they tend to generate the most paper.

Most of the applications generate a paper trail that is only available by visiting the Sussex planning and zoning office. It's an antiquated system in these days of instant information, but the cost and work that would be required to transform decades of records into digital files seems nearly impossible.

Even so, the county is moving in that direction, but it will take some time.

County staff is in the process of developing digital maps that will include all zoning information for the entire county. Chip Guy, the county's communication director, says that mosaic will eventually include several layers of information, such as conditional uses, change of zones and residential planned communities.