Georgetown – Do you know that growth and development are an integral part of Sussex County?
Do you know this County has many small businesses, from farmers to tradesmen, from realtors to restaurateurs?
And finally, do you know where and how will Sussex County grow?
Answers to all these questions and much more were answered last Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at The University of Delaware Carvel Research and Education Center located on Route 9 in a town hall meeting called Heart & Soul of Sussex County under the supervision of Bill Mc Gowan.
Using the “Community Viz” an interactive and visual land tool, Mc Gowan and his assistants made a review of the current status of development in Sussex County and its towns, examine potential growth trends for Sussex County and the Delmarva Peninsula and explore several alternative growth scenarios.
The audience could give their opinions about how they would like to be the development and growth of the Sussex County and its towns.
The proccess of Community Viz Analysis define land Use Designation, create the “Paint” land use for each 100 acre tile, validate the “paint”, run land Capacity Build-Out, analyze Demographics/Validate Results and perform Comparative Analysis on Scenarios.
The land use models depend some variables such us: Density, Nonresidential Square Footage, Mixed Use Percentage and Built Efficiency Percentage. The Land Use Model assumptions the importance of Focus (Residential Dwelling Units or Non Residential Floor Area (Square Footage) and employees, Impacts and Land Use Constraint.
Growth, Development and Industries are vital pieces of Sussex economy which are based on Agriculture, Real Estate, Construction, and Tourism these times.
At present Sussex County has its land -more than 50%- calified as T 100 A Rural Farm (Farm land, open space, preserved space, critical resources with typically 1 DU per 100 acres) and T20 Rural (Rural area, agriculture and recreational and camping. 5 to 20 DU: typically 20 acre lots) but Sussex County has a big development capacity existing land, there is a Growth Plan in general and Alternative Growth Plans too that pretend the creation of Loop Preserves in specific areas. Growth is not necessarily bad if we growth with sense. This is the moment to do the right things, Bill and his equipment tried to explain it to the Sussex County citizens yesterday.
