Why Should Delaware Care?
Newark hosts the main campus of the University of Delaware, the state’s largest university. The city has faced continual tension between the needs of students and longtime residents. The new comprehensive plan will guide how the city will address these challenges for the next decade. Take the online survey here.
Newark is asking the public to share thoughts about how its comprehensive land-use plan should set the rules for what can be built where in Delaware’s third largest city.
The city is currently in the process of gathering information for its once-in-a-decade update to the land-use plan, which will have enormous impacts on future building projects, transportation investments and natural resource protections.
Proposals currently being floated include ones to remove density limits in certain areas to allow for more apartment buildings, and to ease restrictions on bars.
Newark’s Director of Planning and Development Renee Bensley said she wants to give everyone who lives, studies and works in Newark the opportunity to comment.
Bensley said too often, people complain online about Newark’s housing, transportation and nightlife but don’t participate in the processes that will shape the city’s future.
“If people are upset about something, this is the time to tell us,” Bensley said.
The city will hold a series of public meetings both virtually and in person over the next few months. Residents can also fill out an online survey or talk with city representatives tabling at major events in the city.
The city aims to publish its comprehensive land-use plan in late 2026, Bensley said. The information gathering stage will end in early spring, but the city will take public comment throughout the entire process.
A recent Delaware example of how a comprehensive plan can shape a community is the controversial Sussex County proposal to build a retail and housing development the size of a small town.
A major roadblock for the development, called Cool Spring Crossing, is the county’s comprehensive plan, which currently does not allow developments at the proposed project site to have shops and housing together.
Housing policy
One of the most pressing issues that Newark’s comprehensive plan will address is housing.
City Manager Tom Coleman said rents in Newark are significantly higher than in other cities and towns in the state. He said the city needs thousands of new lower-cost houses, townhomes or apartments to meet the current demand.
There are currently about 700 housing units under construction and another 700 under city review, Coleman said. In its next comprehensive plan, the city may look at increasing density limits in certain areas to allow developers to build more apartments.
Coleman said one of the major concerns for Newark residents who aren’t students is that developers are incentivized to build rentals with many bedrooms instead of one- and two-bedroom apartments. Those big rentals are typically occupied by students, he said.
The city currently only limits the number of housing units a developer can add to a building, so developers make more money by adding more bedrooms to each rental.
As a result, Coleman said the city may begin to limit the number of bedrooms in a rental to encourage developers to build more one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Student concerns
A typical complaint from students is that there are no bars – or establishments that primarily serve alcohol with food a secondary consideration – downtown, Coleman said. Some even call the city “No Fun Newark,” or say it’s like the town from the movie “Footloose,” where residents aren’t allowed to dance.
There is merit to that claim, Coleman said, noting that there is no downtown music venue, and new bars are not allowed to be built downtown. New restaurants can have bars, but they are not allowed to clear tables to make a dance floor or play amplified live music.
In most major college towns, such taverns or bars are a common occurrence.
Coleman said that if community members express that they want to change bar restrictions, officials could use the comprehensive plan to look into amending regulations.
He also said he met with UD’s Student Government Association a few weeks ago and provided them with information on upcoming meetings.
He said the city will continue to look for ways to get students involved, noting that students “tend to be underrepresented” in the city’s outreach efforts.