DelDOT must preempt land on Milton Village parcel

As the Gazette reported June 14, the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission recently approved the construction of 296 apartments at the corner of Route 16 and Route 30 (Gravel Hill Road) outside Milton. This will soon be followed by 400 additional residential units and a commercial complex on the same site. According to your reporter, the Milton Village project, once completed, will contribute 18,000 vehicle trips per day to the area. 

Considering the imminent construction of a mega shopping center at the corner of Route 1 and Route 16, again in Milton extended, it does not require a genius to conclude that DelDOT will eventually need to widen Route 16 to four lanes between Route 1 and Route 30, if not all the way to Ellendale. The time to plan for this is now. To maintain its ability to widen Route 16 when the traffic becomes unmanageable, i.e. in two or three years at most, DelDOT needs to acquire the necessary land from Milton Village in the coming months, in the context of the project’s state approval review. After that, it will be too late. We can only hope that DelDOT has learned lessons from the shamble that exists in the Lewes-Rehoboth-Millsboro triangle. If not, Milton extended will be next. I encourage everyone concerned by our future ability to move about to share their opinion with DelDOT.