DNREC: Osprey Point falls under old regs
The proposed Osprey Point development will be subject to state stormwater management regulations that became obsolete more than a year ago. The developer could see substantial savings based on the date sediment and stormwater plans were presented.
Developer Osprey Point D LLC filed an application for a zoning change from AR-1, agricultural-residential, to MR-RPC, medium density, residential planned community, for a 127-acre parcel at the site of Old Landing Golf Course near Rehoboth Beach. The Osprey Point plan features 180 townhomes and 160 single-family homes. The Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission has not ruled on the application.
The developer filed stormwater management plans for review by the Sussex Conservation District before a Jan. 1, 2014 deadline, said Randy Greer, a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control engineer. New regulations went into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
County council voted to ask DNREC to clarify whether the developer met the deadline. The developer had moved forward with a stormwater management plan based on the old regulations, but that action was questioned by residents who opposed the project.
The public record was left open for receipt of DNREC's report. Council voted May 5 to keep the record open for written public comment until Monday, May 25.
Another deadline for the project looms in the near future. All grandfathered projects' sediment and stormwater management plans – including Osprey Point – must be reviewed and approved by district staff before July 1. Grandfathered applicants had an 18-month window to submit plans and receive approval.
Jessica Watson, the district's sediment and stormwater program manager, said many projects are awaiting review, and not all of them will meet the deadline. She could not say whether the Osprey Point stormwater management plan review would meet the deadline.
If the Osprey Point plans are not reviewed by the deadline, the developer must request an administrative extension from DNREC officials. Watson said her office cannot grant an extension.
Her staff is currently working on 30 plans, trying to meet a mandated 30-day turnaround. She said only those developers who scheduled preapplication meetings in 2013, had preliminary approvals and conceptual drawings or had started engineering on stormwater management plans were eligible to be grandfathered. All other plans filed since Jan. 1, 2014, are being reviewed using the new regulations.
Watson said the Osprey Point developer is taking a risk at great cost by proceeding with stormwater management plan approval prior to obtaining approval from Sussex County. Normally, developers submit their final stormwater management plan after county approval. “We are not sure what action the county will take,” she said.
The district's Jim Elliott said two new regulations could affect the Osprey Point project. He said the stormwater management plan must follow a new formula that requires reducing stormwater runoff from the site, which could be an issue because the parcel is a golf course with trees and grass that absorbs more runoff than a site with a high-density development. Under the old regulations, runoff could not exceed stormwater migration from a parcel.
If the proposed management plan cannot meet the standards, there are offset standards in the new regulations, which were not in the old regulations. The developer could pay a fee in lieu of meeting the standards that could range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Developments in low-lying areas and at sea level can also have other new standards to meet that were not contained in the old regulations.
The developer says the plan meets the county's requirements to allow rezoning. Opponents say a downsized project under AR-1 zoning that would provide more open space, lower density and less traffic is more appropriate for the parcel.
The property has been a golf course since the 1960s.
