FENWICK ISLAND – Community members will have an opportunity to comment on the town’s draft comprehensive plan.
On June 8, the Fenwick Island Town Council will hold a special meeting to review the draft comprehensive plan. In a Fenwick Island Planning Commission meeting Tuesday, Chair Susan Brennan said the document will guide future development and redevelopment in town.
“Part of the whole reason we’re doing this is to build out, to secure the future, to think about five, 10 years down the road,” she said.
Last year, the town council agreed to hire consultants to assist the planning commission in rewriting Fenwick Island’s comprehensive plan. And in the months since, officials have worked with University of Delaware advisors to collect data, maps and demographics and develop a vision for the town’s future.
The commission also launched a public survey, the results of which were reviewed by the planning commission in April. Officials say the town received responses from 338 part-time residents, 105 full-time residents, 13 business owners, and 26 visitors. The survey results, which was used to shape the town’s draft comprehensive plan, highlighted community members’ opposition to wind turbines, their concerns about bayside flooding, and their desires to maintain the town’s quiet, family oriented character, among other things.
The commission last month also adopted a timeline for completing and submitting the town’s new comprehensive plan. The timeline included a May 20 open house – which gave community members an opportunity to discuss and engage in the planning process – and a June 8 meeting, which will give town officials an opportunity to review the planning document.
“I am excited about this,” Brennan said, “excited to collaborate, pull the information, to confirm and reconfirm, and to be able to communicate to create this document, which is an exciting navigation tool for the town.”
The town council meeting will be held June 8 at 3 p.m. A public presentation will be accompanied by information boards and comment sheets, which will allow community members to provide input on certain chapters of the draft comprehensive plan.
“I think this is a really good way to present the information,” Brennan said Tuesday.
The draft document will also be forwarded to the state for comments.
“This is very representative of the topics, challenges, concerns, and overall thoughtfulness in terms of this process …,” Jen Reitz, principal planner for the University of Delaware Institute of Public Administration, said this week. “The state will always have comments, but it doesn’t reflect any flaw in your process.”
