Why Should Delaware Care?
For years, development plans in Yorklyn, a small community in northern Delaware, have left residents out of the approval process. But after pressing the state to make changes, an edit was made to a law that kept them out of the approvals.
After years of trying to limit development, residents in the small community of Yorklyn successfully lobbied state environmental regulators to change an obscure piece of legislation that had allowed developers to skirt county land use authority in the area.
Before the change, any parcel of land within one segment of Delaware’s chateau country could have been incorporated into the broader Auburn Valley redevelopment project, bypassing New Castle County land use regulations in favor of more lax state oversight.
Now, only a set number of parcels can be developed under state rules.
The change, outlined in the epilogue of Delaware’s capital budget, is in response to neighbors who for years have decried new parcels of land being added to the plan without community involvement.
In May, the Yorklyn community also notched a win by convincing the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to deny a proposal that would have brought more than 150 new apartments to the site of the former National Vulcanized Fiber (NVF) factory.
The developer can address DNREC’s litany of complaints with the plan by submitting an updated application for the planned six-story residential property.
Delaware’s Fiscal Year 2026 Bond Bill, which was approved on Tuesday morning, added new language to a section labeled the “Auburn Valley Project,” a multi-million dollar development plan that would bring dozens of apartments, townhomes and a large community center.
Approval for the plan initially came through language with the state bond bill in 2011. At that time, dozens of parcels in and around the former manufacturing plant were part of the “Auburn Valley Master Plan.” Since then, a handful of additional parcels have been added.
For years, the section of the state’s bond bill said all properties under the master plan would “not be subject” to New Castle County’s zoning and regulatory authority. Instead, all approvals, zoning decisions and subdivision plans fell to the state’s environmental regulator, DNREC.
While that language still exists in the bond bill, the update this year created an offramp for DNREC’s involvement in the project by developing “a transition plan and timeline” for land use decisions to return to the county.
The bond bill says DNREC and the county would present their transition plan to state lawmakers in April 2026.
What happens now?
As it stands, there are eight development plans for the area in various stages of approval.
Three developments have already signed agreements with DNREC, and will proceed under the new bond bill language. The rest have yet to receive their approvals.
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, DNREC said it’s “committed to sharing any proposal with the community and taking comment on it publicly before it is signed.”
That commitment to public input is not mandated in the new bond bill language.
Last summer, the News Journal reported that Yorklyn residents felt left out of the land use decisions made around them.
Typically, land use decisions are made by Delaware counties and proposals go through multiple public forums before approval. But in the case of Yorklyn, those approvals have been signed behind closed doors, without community involvement.
In 2021, one of those state approvals sparked outrage among residents after they learned that a piece of forested land had been clear cut for a luxury townhouse development. Residents’ ire have continued in the years since.
Last year, the News Journal reported about a resident who said she was blindsided by the acres of trees being clear cut without her knowledge.
“I don’t remember whether or not I cried,” Sandra Finsel told the News Journal at the time. “But I remember stopping and my mouth dropping, and being concerned about who was doing it. And I didn’t have any answers.”
Last week, DNREC Secretary Greg Patterson told Spotlight Delaware in an email that he requested the changes be made to the bond bill after hearing concerns from residents and local leaders “about DNREC’s role in the area in the future.”
Patterson also said DNREC told developers that a six-story residential project known as “Chatham Bay,” which would have brought 151 units to Yorklyn, would not be considered in its current state.
He didn’t provide a direct answer when asked if he anticipates returning that land to county authority before its April 2026 presentation to state lawmakers.
“DNREC anticipates the need for lengthy discussion with the New Castle County land use department — and almost certainly legal counsel as well — to determine how to return land use control in an orderly way, given activities that occurred during the exemption from the county process,” he said in an email.
Some residents aren’t satisfied.
Carlos Alejandro, a Yorklyn resident and advocate against the master plan, said in an email that he does not believe the state’s changes go far enough, though he did say that Patterson’s efforts are long overdue.
“The community of Yorklyn and our neighbors in Hockessin and Pennsylvania have been sidelined for years,” Alejandro said.
His daughter, Kira Alejandro, added that the community still intends to challenge the Auburn Valley projects because of their potential impact on local well water.
Kira argued the development plans would not adhere to New Castle County’s restrictions for the Cockeysville Water Resource Protection Area, which encompasses much of northern Delaware.
“We intend to push for answers as to why DNREC will not impose the [county’s] water resource protection restrictions on the master plan when the consequences could potentially impact everyone on well water in Yorklyn, Hockessin, and even parts of Chester County, Pa.,” Kira said in an email.
