12 - CAPE GAZETI, Friday, April 26 - May 2, 1996
State legislature returns to work to face full plate
By Michael Short
The Delaware legislature re-
turned to work on Tuesday fol-
lowing the Easter recess with a
number of issues undecided.
Here's a look at some of the key
legislation being considered and
where it stands, with a special em-
phasis on the efforts of local legis-
lators.
• Rep. John Schroeder (D-
Lewes) has proposed legislation
to cut elementary class sizes in
grades five or under to no more
than 15 students. Schroeder ar-
gues with passion that small class
sizes will mean a better education
for students at the critical elemen-
tary school level.
But Schroeder said this week
that his legislation will be held
while an amendment is drafted
which would make it voluntary
for school districts to follow the
smaller class sizes. School dis-
tricts who meet the standard
would receive a carrot of extra
state funding.
He said he has mixed feelings
about that, saying he was hoping
the legislature would send a clear
signal about small class sizes. But
Schroeder said making the mea-
sure voluntary will make it more
likely the bill will pass.
• Rep. George Bunting (D-
Bethany Beach) has suggested a
plan to redraw the councilmanic
districts for County Council. His
suggestion is to make the districts
more representative of the entire
county.
But Bunting said Thursday that
he expects that bill to go nowhere
in this year's legislative session.
• More funding for textbooks.
This legislation has already been
signed into law and it gives school
districts $10 million to update text
books. That's long been a com-
plaint of schools that complain
that many textbooks are so out of
touch that they don't even men-
tion the recent fall of the Soviet
Union.
The funding will provide
$190,447 for the Cape Henlopen
School District. Indian River will
receive roughly $353,000, Laurel
will receive $95,000, Woodbridge
will receive $80,000 and Delmar
will receive $35,000.
Cape Henlopen Superintendent
Suellen Skeen said her reaction to
the news was "hooray!" She
added that the textbook money
will be a big help to the district
which will enable them to pur-
chase much needed materials. "It
really helps us," Skeen said.
• Reassessment. Sussex County
has supported this bill, which is
being pushed by Sen. Robert
Voshell (D-Milford). The idea is
to make the way property taxes
are assessed more fair and equi-
table through a new reassessment.
That will mean changes in the
amount of taxes individuals pay
(although the overall amount of
taxes collected should not
change).
Voshell said the bill has
prompted questions from a busi-
ness group--the Committee of
l(X)---and by realtors. The biggest
question has to do with the way
commercial property would be as-
sessed and those concerns must be
hammered out.
• Traffic, rezonings and land
use. This may be the big issue of
this session with several bills be-
ing proposed that would restrict
development by limiting rezon-
ings etc. Most of the bills have
come from upstate legislators and
are seen as an indication that peo-
ple feel development may have
started to careen out of control.
House Speaker Terry Spence
(R-Newark) called earlier this
week for the legislature to step
back and not rush bills into law.
Spence suggested formation of a
task force to bring people together
to talk about those issues.
Rep. Schroeder said that it's not
a good idea to put land use deci-
sions into state hands, because
state legislators will be less ac-
countable to local constituents.
"To me, you have to have local
decision makers so you have local
accountability," Schroeder said.
There may be a new package of
bills on this issue coming from
Governor Tom Carper's office,
according to Carper Chief of Staff
Jeffrey Bullock.
• Senate Bill 72. This was ex-
pected to be debated in the legisla-
ture on April 25 and has drawn the
support of at least one local legis-
lator. Rep. George Carey (R-Mil-
ton) supports the bill, although he
said it was a tough decision to
make.
The legislation affects the
amount of medical care patients
may receive, in effect giving pa-
tients more opportunity to say
how far medicine should go to
preserve their lives.
Among provisions of the new
bill is a measure to allow patients
to limit the type of treatment they
receive if they fall into lasting un-
consciousness.
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Sussex Land Use Plan moves slowly ahead;
five-acre mobile home limit may be nixed
By Michael Short
A five-acre minimum lot size
requirement for mobile homes in
the AR-1 zone is likely to be one
of the casualties of the county's
efforts to develop a comprehen-
sive land use plan.
Where mobile homes can be
placed has proven to be a "hot but-
ton" issue during the development
of the comprehensive land use
plan, which will be completed by
the end of the year.
Consultant Thomas Shafer of
the consulting firm Whitman, Re-
quardt and Associates in Balti-
more, said that his firm continues
to tabulate results from public sur-
veys on issues that will shape the
land use plan.
But that mobile home require-
ment in the agricultural residential
area is one of the issue prompting
the most discussion, Shafer said.
Currently, a more traditional
home can be built on a half acre
lot in the zone, but mobile homes
require five acres of land (there is
no such requirement in mobile
home parks).
It's a controversial provision
enacted because of worries that
mobile or manufactured homes
will deteriorate and cause sur-
rounding property values to dip.
The Sussex County Mobile
Home Tenants Association has
gone on record in support of re-
ducing the five acre minimum lot
size, but other residents feel just
as strongly that it shouldn't be
changed.
Shafer is
reluctant to
say what he
thinks will
happen to that
five acre re-
quirement for
mobile
homes in the
AR-1 zoning.
SHAFER
But he
thinks that it will be reduced and
will wind up somewhere between
the half acre required for stick-
built homes and the five acres for
mobile homes.
"People feel very strongly about
the issue," Shafer said.
"They [manufactured home
owners] want parity and I think
they will get it... but other peo-
ple feel just as strongly that they
would rather not see as many."
The final results of that differ-
ence of opinion won't be decided
for some time.
Whitman, Requardt and Asso-
ciates, which is helping the county
to develop the plan, is expected to
spend April and May tabulating
survey results.
Sussex County will then hold a
pair of public hearing on the pro-
posed land use plan (by the Coun-
ty's Planning and Zoning Com-
mission and by Sussex County
Council) before a plan is adopted
by the end of the year.
He said that they received ap-
proximately 200 surveys from the
public.
The public will also have a
chance at those public hearings to
speak on the land use issues,
which range from zoning to trans-
portation.
Shafer said the consultants may
well come up with more than one
option for the county to consider
and he pledged that whatever is
proposed will be available before
the hearing dates (which have not
yet been determined).
He said that residents will not
come "to the hearing and see it for
the first time. That would not be
fair."
Shafer was reluctant to predict
what the actual recommendations
of his firm may be.
One recommendation may be
for three housing zones which are
based upon density, he said.
But Shafer said that is only an
idea at this point and it is still too
early to have definite recommen-
dations.
"We are considering a couple
of different scenarios."
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