Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
- Early primary voting to begin Wednesday
- Legislature’s property assessment working group to convene
- Sussex Council to vote on forest preservation rules
- State planners to review ChristianaCare expansions, Georgetown pallet village
Early primary voting begins Wednesday
Early voting for this year’s primary election is set to begin Wednesday morning.
Delaware’s primary will not officially take place until Tuesday, Sept. 15, but voters who are registered with the Democratic and Republican parties can begin casting their ballots as early as 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Delaware operates under a closed primary system, meaning that voters must be registered with either of the two major parties in order to participate.
The deadline for most residents to affiliate with a party has passed, but voters who were automatically registered at the Department of Motor Vehicles without choosing a party can still participate by designating their affiliation in person at their polling place.
Early voting will take place from:
- Sept. 2 through Sept. 5 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sept. 8 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sept. 9 through Sept. 13 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There will be no early voting Sept. 6-7 in honor of Labor Day.
A full list of early voting polling places can be found online at the Department of Elections website.
📍 Early voting will at 7 a.m. Wednesday at polling locations across the state. For more information, click here.
Property assessment working group begins
The General Assembly’s property assessment working group, created earlier this year as part of a larger slate of reforms, will convene for the first time Monday morning.
The working group will be tasked with developing statewide standards for conducting property assessments. Those standards could include establishing requirements for how property data is collected and maintained, among others.
The group was created through House Concurrent Resolution 150, sponsored by Rep. Cyndie Romer (D-Newark). According to HCR 150, legislation created by the working group could prevent counties from certifying their tax rolls should their assessments not meet the to-be-determined state standards.
While Romer said she usually bristles at the idea of creating working groups that can prolong direct action, she realized there is not a quick fix to address the multiple issues that occurred during New Castle County’s property reassessment.
Those issues led to results that confounded Romer. Those included the results of a Spotlight Delaware analysis that found properties in some of Wilmington’s poverty-stricken communities saw some of the largest percentage increases in median property value across the state.
So she set out to correct the assessment process, and to ensure the new property reassessments do not create the same fallout as their predecessors.
“I didn’t feel like we could do nothing,” Romer told Spotlight Delaware earlier this year. “We needed to fix this problem, even though we realized it was going to take time to truly fix it.”
📍 The property assessment working group will meet at 10 a.m. Monday inside the House Majority Hearing Room at Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Sussex forest preservation vote
Sussex County Council on Tuesday will vote on whether to require builders to preserve a portion of the trees that sit on their land.
Developers would have to preserve between 30% and 50% of the existing trees on their properties, depending on whether the land is in an area where officials want to direct development.
The proposed rules would also allow developers to clear trees beyond the proposed limit if they plant at least twice the amount of trees they cut down, either on the same land or nearby. That could only happen if the developer proves they don’t have another option.
County Council considered allowing developers to pay a fee instead of planting new trees, but the majority of council members appear to be against that proposal.
Under the current proposal, the rules would go into effect in six months, but Councilwoman Jane Gruenebaum argued developers could cut down trees during that time. The council will likely debate when the effective date should be on Tuesday.
📍The Sussex County Council is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday inside the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
State planners to discuss ChristianaCare expansions, Georgetown tiny homes
State planners on Wednesday morning will review both ChristianaCare’s plans to expand into Kent and Sussex counties, and Springboard Delaware’s proposed tiny home community in Georgetown.
The Preliminary Land Use Service (PLUS), made up of planning officials across multiple state agencies, reviews proposed development projects and provides comments before those projects are further reviewed by local officials.
This week’s meeting will include the review of two proposed hospital expansions by Delaware Healthcare giant ChristianaCare.
The healthcare system previously announced plans to build new facilities in both Camden and Georgetown.
PLUS also will review a proposal by Springboard Delaware, which currently operates a transitional housing community called the pallet village, to build a larger tiny home community in the Sussex County seat.
Tiny homes writ large have been an ongoing subject of controversy in Georgetown, with local officials currently reconsidering their previous decision to allow tiny homes to be built within town limits.
📍 PLUS will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday inside Haslet Armory, located at 122 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
