To change or not to change, that was the question at Sussex County Council’s Jan. 14 meeting.
Arrayed on one side was an overflow crowd arguing against Councilperson Matt Lloyd’s proposal for a limited, targeted moratorium on new proposals for development of five or more residential units in Level 4 state investment areas of the county, agricultural lands needing protection but where much of the county’s development has occurred over the past two decades. Builders, developers, engineers, Realtors, bankers, a hospital system CEO, workers and advocates for affordable housing had mobilized at the mere mention of moratorium, almost none of whom understood the targeted, limited scope of the possible proposal.
On the other side were a few voices suggesting that action was needed, possibly a moratorium if council fails to take action. My own argument, more nuanced than reported in the Cape Gazette, was that Lloyd’s proposal was welcome because it forced everyone to focus attention on the central issue of the 2024 election, the urgent need for change.
Absent from the discussion were the thousands of Sussex County voters who had voted for change in 2024. Those voices should not be ignored.
The 2024 election produced a clear mandate for change. The three challengers who defeated council incumbents received a combined total of 59,978 votes. Three incumbents received a combined total of 20,178. These totals include votes cast in both primary and general elections. Three times as many votes were cast against incumbents than for them, an indictment of past performance.
Some readers might object to this way of looking at the results. We can also focus on the margin of victory in the direct face-off between incumbents and challengers in each of three contests. Challengers won 57.8% (Lloyd), 58.5% (McCarron) and 54.7% (Gruenebaum) of the vote in the decisive election, the two Republican primary contests in Districts 1 and 2 and the general election in District 3. Voters chose the three new members of Sussex County Council by decisive majorities – the smallest margin was just under 10%.
Although the successful challengers did not have a coordinated campaign message, each criticized overdevelopment and argued that Sussex County needed to make dramatic changes in how it makes land-use decisions.
Sussex voters delivered a resounding message: enough is enough. Stop doing business as usual. Exercise control over land-use decisions that produce different results.
County council, including the two incumbents who were not on the ballot, needs to take the results seriously, prepare a plan and take action. Many speakers who argued against the moratorium pledged their willingness to help find solutions to the problems that they acknowledged are real. By raising the moratorium, Lloyd has managed to bring key players to the table and lay the foundation for discussions that help Sussex address the problems it’s now experiencing. Council needs to make a commitment to that effort, make a plan with ambitious targets.
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