About Us

Founded in 1962, the Civic League For New Castle County is an organization comprised of community civic associations, umbrella civic groups, good government groups, businesses, and interested individuals. The League provides a forum for education about, discussion of, and action on issues relating to the impact of government on the quality of life in New Castle County

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

CLNCC Public ZOOM Monthly Meeting - With Daniel Blevins Principal Planner At Wilmapco - 7PM Tuesday, January 18th

 


CLNCC Monthly Meeting

7 p.m. Tuesday, January 18th

ZOOM Program


Civic League for New Castle County  Zoom Meeting
Time: Jan 18 Nov, 2022 07:00 PM EST
Guest Daniel Blevins Principal Planner at Wilmapco

Join CLNCC Zoom Meeting
https://bit.ly/3F46ENe

Meeting ID: 898 692 4710
Passcode: 12345


County Comments January 2022:

How can there be 20,000 excess residential units in New Castle County 

by Charles C Stirk Jr 1/1/2022 

How can there be 20,000 excess residential units in New Castle County . 
 

225,245 Residential Units in NCC

205,829 Households in NCC

48,000+ Approved New Residential Units NCC 2020

For years now NCC Has had an ordnance registering vacant residential property but no ware near a 1000+ number have been registered.

 

Are these 20,000 vacant residential units Zombie properties ?  In 2012 WILMAPCO estimated 14,700 vacant residential properties in New Castle County . In nearly a decade have vacant residential property increased by approximately 5000 units ?

Are there nearly 20,000 vacation homes & Pied-à-terre or short term rentals such as Airbnb in NCC ? A check of Airbnb list only 300 ish available units in NCC . 

What portion of the 20,000 excess residential units owned by real estate investment funds ?

Using residential property as an investment asset such as gold &  Intently holding vacant residential property from the market  would seem to be a Nonconforming Use to a Land Use Department .

The Variety of Land Use Departments in New Castle County did not approve residential development for 20,000 units or roughly 5% of all residential property to sit vacant .

In any case the various state of ownership 5% residential property in New Castle County is currently vacant & beyond the market . The various vacant residential property ordnances have not solved the issue at hand . 

What Can Be Done ? 

Vacancy / Empty homes tax

The City of Vancouver In British Columbia has come up with a possible solution The Empty Homes Tax, also known as the "Vacancy Tax”, VACANCY TAX BY-LAW NO. 11674 . 

Simply put an additional 3% of the taxable assessed value on vacant residential properties doubling year on year . 

A originally written the By-law doubled the Empty homes tax year on year 

1st year 3% 2nd year 6% 3rd year 12% 4th year 24% 5th year 48% 6th year 96% of the taxable assessed value on vacant residential properties .

A ordinance such as above doubling the Empty homes tax year on year would seemingly strongly encourage all owners of vacant residential property to bring such residential units back to the marketplace .

Comp Plan April 7 2021 Workshop

By Vic Singer

This evening  Wednesday -- I attended the LU Department's 6 pm to 8 pm Comp Plan Workshop entitled "April 7, 2021 - Community Design and Historic Preservation."  The LU Department followed up by asking for an evaluation survey, in two principal parts.  The first, a General Comment on the entire seance, was limited to 1000 characters (no, NOT 180 words).  The second or Other Comments section, was unlimited. My unexpurgated remarks in both sections follow.

In minor parts, I acknowledged living in 1973 in an owned home, being white, non-hispanic and over 65 with an income greater than $100K.  Actually, my mother's family was hispanic before the Spanish Inquisition in the 1490's; over succeeding centuries they wound up in Eastern Europe, and then to Canada in the 1920's  

You may remember that during our gathering Monday afternoon/evening, I mentioned that during my many years designing rocket motors for numerous communication satellites, it was my practice to encourage our customers to develop a sense of ownership of the design by allowing them to make some design decisions, but never on anything crucial to mission success.  We let the customer choose what colors to paint the bathrooms. 

My overall impression of this particular Comp Plan public involvement opportunity is that the LU Department is giving the public an opportunity to choose what colors to paint the bathrooms.  The 1000 character limit on comments sort of confirms that.

GENERAL COMMENT ON THE ENTIRE SEANCE

The seance focused on land use patterns (unusual in NC County at least north of the canal) suitable for accommodating population growth, and for existing populations seeking newer quarters. I'm aware of only one area in NC County where an existing community was razed and replaced with a new lot layout -- west of Philadelphia Pike near the PA line and the former steel plant. Should that happen again, the present street pattern may well be preserved, to re-use buried water, sewer, telephone and electric infrastructure.

I asked also how many years of growth can be accommodated by using the existing inventory of platted but undeveloped dwelling lots.

Mr Hall acknowledged (responding to my comments) that NC County's growth rate is expected to turn negative after 2040, but that he has little faith in population projections. Our Population Consortium's historic strategy is to get all the players to agree on projection methodology, thereby locking them into the result. NC County is one of the players. Mr Hall should have more than intuition to support his view.

A re-focus is sorely needed.

COMMENT AT "OTHER THOUGHTS" SECTION

.Mr Kohl (our Comp Plan land use consultant) deprecated situations where a streetscape is damaged by an electric pole line on one side and a telephone pole line on the other side. Had he devoted sufficient time to familiarization with NC County, he would have observed that for perhaps more than three decades, out telephone and low voltage electric lines have been underground. He also acknowledged that his firm is rarely engaged by communities that expect negative population growth. Did we hire the wrong consultant on Mr Hall's intuition that the Population Consortium's projection is faulty?

First, a 1/27/2015 e-mail from the UDC Update Consultant to the LU GM, and related correspondence, are consistent with a new overlay zoning scheme that would create Economic Development Districts and Neighborhood Conservation Districts. The 1/27/2015 e-mail addresses regulatory incentives of the Economic Development Districts, including "Modifications to concurrency in traffic impact analysis such as exemptions from traffic impact studies, level of service standard reductions . . . that reduce the cost of compliance.

Second, except for the absence of the term "Overlay Zoning," both the 12/16/2014 and 2/10/2015 SOW drafts already include the terms "Economic Development Districts" and "Neighborhood Conservation Districts" in text that conveniently avoids mentioning that relaxations of the concurrency, LOS and TIS requirements are being contemplated.

The apparent UDC Update strategy is to soften up the audience -- the public -- with sweet talk before exposing the bitter pills. We are to be lulled into complacency before being urged to drink the Kool-Aid.

And at the regulatory level -- how individual land use intensification applications are to be handled -- exactly the same strategy again appears: Keep the public in the dark until it's too late to mount an effective defense, thereby making the Kool-Aid easier to swallow. That strategy is clearly stated in both the 12/16/2014 and 2/10/2015 SOW drafts, in text under a "Short Term UDC Amendments" heading and a "Streamline Development Review Procedures" heading. That text: "emphasize procedures that involve staff approval rather than discretionary public hearings."

.Eliminating "discretionary" hearings means hearings other than the Planning Board and County Council public hearings which are mandated by State law. It is hardly credible that the UDC Update SOW would include such a provision if it didn't reflect the views of the LU GM. Those views boldly contradict her advocacy, in numerous presentations to many groups in and outside of government, of early involvement of the public in land use intensification applications, is just sweet talk before the Kool-Aid comes into view.





MOT Alliance Public Zoom Meeting With NCC Officials: 6PM January 12th; NCC Comp Plan Draft Comments Due January 30th

 

MOT Alliance ~

IMPORTANT - VIRTUAL Public Forum - Southern New Castle County

6 - 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 12th

ZOOM Meeting

REGISTER HERE

You are welcome to pre-register at:
TOP PRIORITY TO ATTEND!
Reason for meeting: New Castle County government has been directing a master planning process for Southern New Castle County (SNCC) over the last several years. To date, that process has yielded the draft SNCC Master Plan. This virtual public forum has been organized with the County Land Use Department, the MOT Alliance, and local public officials in an effort to continue building on the work of the southern NCC master planning effort and to further engage the community on important planning issues to support modifications as the draft countywide comprehensive plan gets updated.
On January 12th, after brief introductions from elected panelists and guests, we will spend time on each of the following 5 topics, including time for audience participation and questions.
Topic #1: Economy / Jobs
Topic #2: Environment
Topic #3: Quality of Life and Community Services (this includes schools, public safety, and other)
Topic #4: Community Design / Character
Topic #5: Transportation
There will be some time at the end of the meeting for general public comments and questions. Please keep statements to less than 1 minute. The chat feature of the meeting will be open so you may also submit comments and questions there.


With more from the MOT Alliance ~

The Middletown Odessa Townsend (MOT) Alliance is a grassroots, community run organization whose mission is to promote responsible growth and development in the MOT region.  The community members have been working with our office, the New Castle County (NCC) Department of Land Use, as well as state representatives to provide feedback on the Southern New Castle County Master Plan, as well as the overall NCC Comprehensive Plan.

In addition to comments on the land use plans, the MOT Alliance is gathering information to share with the Department of Land Use on how residents of the MOT region would like to see growth and development in the community.  The Alliance has developed a thoughtful survey to better understand what residents throughout Southern NCC desire for our future.  The survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. 

If you have a few minutes, please give your feedback by completing the survey at http://www.motalliance.com/survey

Additionally, the MOT Alliance has been working with the Department of Land Use to schedule a MOT focused workshop on future planning for the region.  This workshop will take place on January 12 at 6:00PM at the Volunteer Hose of Middletown (28 W Green St) we hope that you can attend to give your feedback on what you hope to see in the future for our community.

NCC@2050 Draft Plan 
The NCC@2050 Comprehensive Plan draft is now available for review and public comment.  Public comment on the draft plan will be accepted until January 30, 2022*.  You can view and download the draft plan here.  In each section of the plan there is a link to leave a comment, you can also provide feedback by emailing NCC2050@newcastlede.gov

*Note: The county had set January 12th as the end of the Comp Plan Draft comment period to great objection from residents, especially from this group, as this meeting had already been scheduled for the same day and that would have prevented meaningful dialogue and direct information from the county from being included in the draft commentary. 4

As I understand it, for those reasons, Dave Carter was able to persuade Rich Hall to agree to extend the comment period to January 30th. Thanks Dave!