Sussex County Land Use group presents formal recommendations

October 31, 2025 14

GEORGETOWN — The Sussex County Land Use Reform Working Group has formally submitted a comprehensive set of recommendations to the Sussex County Council with designated growth zones as a key concept for future development.

The final recommendations, including the growth zone concept, were presented to the council via a workshop on Oct. 14 with consultant Andrew Bing of Kramer & Associates at the helm, offering up the 20 recommendations that had been agreed upon by the group.

The working group, created by the county council earlier in 2025, was charged with examining the county’s land-use trends, housing supply and infrastructure alignment so they could recommend a clear path forward to council members.

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“The biggest recommendation is that the county clearly define what they believe is a growth area and where they don’t. And one of the key drivers. . . is that’s where the infrastructure is,” working group member Christophe Tulou of the Center for the Inland Bays said.

That growth area, or growth zones, would include future development in the county that is supported by infrastructure in concentrated areas. Under the recommendations of the working group, growth zones would also be areas with access to services such as sewer, water, roadways and transportation within up to two miles depending on the utility.

“One of my ‘aha’ moments in those ten meetings was someone speaking up and saying, ‘The reason you’re seeing decades worth of single-family homes being built in Sussex is because that’s what your code is directing us to build,” Bing told council members. “That’s such a simple statement, but it was one of those moments where it made a lot of sense: that folks are building what is easiest, most predictable, and, quite honestly, most profitable, and we’re not making it easy on them to build something else.”

The recommendations and final report can be found on the council website for the working group. They include establishing growth and conservation areas, comprehensive rezoning for the county with clear standards, defining and permitting the missing middle housing types in Sussex County code with relevant standards, modernizing the code and preserving forestry and natural spaces, among other recommendations.

Next steps were also suggested, including a council studies report, the determination of priorities, planning stages and, of course, implementation of the changes agreed upon by council at a later date.

According to the working group’s summary, recommendations deemed relatively quick to implement include:

defining the missing middle housing types and permitting them in strategic areas,
improving clarity and consistency of the subdivision code, and
amending the county’s rental program.

More substantial items that will likely stretch into years of work include:

aligning the future land-use map,
establishing distinct growth and conservation areas,
undertaking a comprehensive rezoning, and
exploring a transfer-of-development-rights program.

The reform package signals a shifting regulatory landscape for the business community, including developers, builders and infrastructure providers. In particular, the future allowance of duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and other “missing-middle” housing types will open new product-type opportunities for those professionals.

No binding timetable has yet been adopted by the council as of yet to enact any of the recommendations offered by the Sussex County Land Use Reform Working Group.