Five Points Working Group: appreciation for the work to date, looking ahead

The Five Points Transportation Study Working Group (composed of business and community leaders, elected and government officials, and other interested individuals) should be commended for their time, thoughtfulness and commitment to addressing the challenges of transportation in the Five Points area.

The working group, after a process that began in December 2017, approved 78 ideas that will be prioritized and then submitted to DelDOT this fall for consideration.

These ideas will be presented at a public workshop Monday, Aug. 27, from 4 to 7 p.m., in the gymnasium at Beacon Middle School. I encourage all interested members of the public to attend, and offer your input and feedback on these ideas.

Additionally, the public will have the opportunity to offer suggestions regarding how the ideas should be prioritized. The ideas and all of the work of the working group can be reviewed on the project website at www.5points.deldot.gov.

Let me take a moment to review the process the working group went through to arrive at their ideas, and what we anticipate taking place during Phase 2.

The group worked through a deliberate process that started with the identification of needs in the Five Points area. These needs were divided into four categories: Safety, Mobility, Quality of Life and Economic Development. These needs were the focus of a public workshop in April. During the workshop, the public was asked to comment on and suggest additional needs in the study area.

The group then used the final list of needs as the foundation for the development of ideas to address transportation issues in the study area. The group members and the public suggested 103 ideas. These ideas were then reviewed, discussed and evaluated by the group. Over the course of two meetings, the group voted on each of the 103 ideas, resulting in 78 ideas approved by a majority vote of the group members who were present at each of the two meetings.

The final step in the group process will be to review the feedback from the public workshop Aug. 27 and prioritize the ideas at a September Working Group meeting. Phase 1 will conclude at a working group meeting in October, when formal recommendations will be made to DelDOT and Sussex County.

Building on the success of Phase 1, DelDOT and Sussex County intend to move forward with Phase 2 of the Five Points Transportation Study. DelDOT and Sussex County will start to act on the recommendations by developing an implementation plan.

Although their role will be different from Phase 1, a working group will be utilized in an advisory role and to help monitor the implementation plan. Finally, DelDOT and Sussex County will continue active public outreach to report on the progress being made.

The transportation issues in the Five Points area did not happen overnight, and they will not be solved quickly or easily. However, I am confident we will look back on the recommendations of this working group as a catalyst for transportation improvements that will promote safety, improve mobility, and maintain or improve the quality of life everyone in the Five Points area has come to enjoy.

I look forward to receiving the formal prioritized recommendations with public input.