A time to discuss private property
Having a rural lifestyle should not be an issue.
As I have previously discussed in this forum, my wife and I made a conscious choice to live in the country.
One of the things I noted in my piece from way back when is that the plot of land I reside on was once part of a much larger field. About 20 years ago the landowner began the process of subdividing off a portion of his road frontage, slicing thirteen lots of 3/4 acre or so off of the property for eventual sale. As of now eleven of those have been sold and the other two exist on paper only because the farmer still plants his crops on them. Just a piece down the road, the subdivision continues on the other side of the corner I live on - although that is a different plat as far as the county is concerned, it was more parcels for the landowner to sell. (That one has eight remaining lots out of twelve.)
Like most counties, Sussex County has a zoning code and a comprehensive plan. Even so, those who live in the eastern coastal sections of the county have made a much bigger deal of what they consider excessive growth and sprawl, and to an extent they have a point. In the last four decades, the county’s population has exploded from 98,000 in 1980 to about 240,000 now. What used to be primarily empty land on the west side of Coastal Highway (Route 1 now, but Route 14 back in the day) is now teeming with suburbia all the way out to Long Neck and Milton, with large subdivisions where farms used to be.
But while there are a few subdivisions like that on our end of the county, much of the growth is as I have described: farmer creates a few outlots along the road and sells them piecemeal as financial circumstances dictate. It’s a system that works well for both sides: people like me get our fix of country living and the farmer picks up enough to make the difference between profit and loss for the year while still having plenty of room for crops and manuevering tractors. The fact that 11 houses went up in three years or so is rather unusual, although there’s another area on the next road over that’s sprung up a half-dozen houses since we looked at the first brand new one three years ago. (It was actually the house we checked out right after this one as our realtor friend showed us four that summer evening.) Although this parcel wasn’t carved out of farmland in the traditional sense - it backs up to a state water access area - it was still a subdivision and we would have suddenly had several neighbors.
Zoning zealots, though, would love to make it much more difficult for farmers to create outlots. Demands for ultra-large building lots cut into the potential gain for farmers while long-term incentives for not building lock a family into making their property worth less for a short-term gain. One such scam is that of transferable development rights, for which here’s an example from Pennsylvania:
For example, the agricultural zoning district and TDR sending area in Warwick Township (Lancaster County) allows landowners the ability to subdivide their land for non-farm residential purposes generally at a ratio of one lot for every 25 acres. Under the TDR option, these same landowners can sever and convey TDRs at a ratio of one TDR for every two acres. A 100-acre farm can generate up to four residential lots through the traditional zoning option or 50 TDRs.
To a smaller extent, this is present in Sussex County but developers are still allowed two units per acre if they don’t participate - and most don’t, as the bonus density open space contributions have totalled $1.4 million, out of three separate contributions, according to the county’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan. Turns out a half-acre lot is fairly generous; in fact, the go-to lot locally seems to be about 3/4 acre, which falls under the prescribed maximum density. I suppose it’s a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I’m sure the county will begin getting more pressure from certain “stakeholders” that have the imprimatur of the state and federal governments behind them, but for now it looks like the county still believes the farmers and landowners know best.