NEWS

Proposed Rehoboth-area land swap raises questions

Molly Murray
The News Journal

A deal, in the discussion phase for a year now, proposes the trade of a little more than 5 acres of church-owned land near Rehoboth Beach that includes two baseball diamonds for a similar amount of state open space that would, if approved, become a church cemetery.

It was outlined Wednesday for the state Open Space Council.

And it was immediately lambasted by a large group of neighboring property owners, including a former state lawmaker, who wondered why, a year into talks they were just learning about the proposed swap.

"We have concerns, objections, questions," said former state Sen. John Still, who led the opposition at the Open Space Council.

Still and others said they were concerned that the proposed swap was "concealed from us and was not transparent."

The complaint is an increasingly common one being aimed at the state environmental agency, which provides the technical support and brings proposed projects to the Open Space Council for review.

In recent months, the Delaware Audubon Society raised similar concerns about open space purchases.

Following the Open Space Council meeting Wednesday, Audubon conservation chair David Carter sent out an email blast in which he said they, too, were "deeply dismayed ... to learn of yet another case of concealment of public information and lack of transparency."

Carter went on to criticize the behavior at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control as "seriously tarnishing and undermining the work of the Open Space Council."

Audubon went to court last month to press the council and DNREC to develop criteria and standards for open space purchases as required by law.

The council got a briefing Wednesday on the criteria several state agencies use when selecting land for possible purchase, and they learned more about open space in each of the three counties.

But the council chair, former state Rep. John Schroeder, said he would like to move through the process of developing criteria and standards faster, and he asked two council members, Wayne Holden and Lorraine Fleming, to serve on an interagency panel that would draft the proposals.

Schroeder said he would like to see a proposal "sooner rather than later."

But the land-swap proposal took center stage at Wednesday's meeting.

State environmental officials plan to meet with the residents of the Glade, a single-family home community adjacent to the land being considered for the swap on March 13.

Still and others said they requested the meeting to learn more about the proposal and the state's intentions.

"Our trust ... has been damaged due to the lack of sunshine and transparency," he said.

Still said community residents value the open space near the development and want to see that it continues to be protected as open space because of its important environmental and ecological benefits.

Any land swap would be a complicated process, but it would not be unprecedented. The state and Epworth United Methodist Church – which owns the ball field complex off Holland Glade Road just north of Rehoboth Beach – swapped land in a past deal that allowed construction of the church on land just east of the resort Del. 1 corridor. In exchange, the state got an undeveloped portion of the ball field property.

It would require multiple steps before it could move forward, including approval by the state Legislature, said Ron Vickers, real estate specialist at DNREC. Because the property would be developed into a cemetery, it would also require conditional-use approval by Sussex County officials, he said.

The state owns hundreds of acres of land in the area east of Del. 1, land that was purchased with Open Space money to provide a buffer on the western edge of Cape Henlopen State Park and to clear the way for the popular Junction and Breakwater trail and other nearby connecting trails.

The council took no action on the proposal, but they did vote to move forward toward settlement of two land donations and two purchases.

The donations include an island in the Inland Bays now owned by Tunnell Companies. The land would be used as a dredge spoils site during a channel-deepening project and would ultimately be redeveloped into a bird sanctuary. The second donation would be one-tenth of an acre near Ocean View that would allow public access to a proposed trail along the Assawoman Canal. In both cases, $5,000 for each property would come from open space money to pay for settlement costs.

The council also approved two land purchases: the 13-acre Tofts property adjacent to the Norman G. Wilder Wildlife Area at a cost of $50,000 and the purchase of the 91-acre Webb Property adjacent to the Jester Tract at Redden State Forest. The state would pay $6,500 per acre for the land once surveys are complete. That property, Vickers said, includes a rare stand of Atlantic white cedar trees and an access point to the Gravelly Branch, which flows to the Nanticoke River.

Reach Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.