UPDATED: Sussex County Council Holds Public Hearing on CMF Cool Spring, LLC Tuesday Afternoon
UPDATED – 11/04/25 – The Sussex County Council met Tuesday – a meeting that heavily focused on land use. County Administrator Todd Lawson had a short discussion on the Land Use Reform Working Group recommendations and that they would begin to implement some of the more straight-forward recommendations in the near future. He told the Council it’s been made clear that they do not want to wait till late 2026 to begin work on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan update – and will begin working on it immediately.
Lawson also told the Council that Sussex County has been approved by the State Housing Authority for the zoning and land use pilot program to receive technical assistance with updating the Code to implement specific strategies that the County Council seeks. This will begin in early next year.
In Old Business the Council revisited three applications. Conditional Use No. 2395 for Breeze-A Bella Land Group for a distribution warehouse on the south side of Park Avenue near Georgetown was denied with a 4 to 1 vote. Change of Zone No. 2024 for the Christopher Companies for an RPC east of Frankford was unanimously denied by the Council. Change of Zone No 2001 for Belmead Farm was only on the agenda to announce the closure of the record. This will be revisited for a vote by the Council at a later date.
During the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, several residents spoke – focusing on two topics – impact fees and offshore wind regarding Senate Bill 199, formerly SB 159, which was introduced, passed and signed into law on June 30th – the bill takes effect on January 31, 2026.
Cool Spring Crossing / Image courtesy Sussex County Government
During the afternoon session there were four applications regarding Cool Spring Crossing which include an ordinance amendment to the future land use map, Change of Zone No. 2010, Conditional Use No 2441 and No. 2442. All four applications were heard as one public hearing which lasted for nearly 6 1/2 hours. After hearing from the attorney for the developer, Carl M Freeman and from DelDOT officials who fielded questions about the project and the Henlopen TID it was the public’s turn to voice its opinion. Four people spoke in favor of Cool Spring Crossing. Five members of the Sussex Preservation Coalition spoke in opposition for over 90 minutes – covering multiple topics from the Comp Plan to traffic and more. Another dozen residents spoke afterwords – with several petitions presented to the Council as well.
The public hearing was closed, however the record is being kept open so that several agencies can respond to questions from the County Council. The Council has two weeks to pose and send off their questions to DelDOT, fire companies that would be impacted by Cool Spring Crossing, Cape Henlopen School District, State Police and State Forestry. Those agencies will have two weeks to respond and then the public will have two weeks after that to respond – in writing or email – only to the responses from those agencies. It will be some time before Cool Spring Crossing returns for a vote.
The County Council does not meet next Tuesday as it is Veterans Day. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 18.
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ORIGINAL STORY – 11/03/25 – The Sussex County Council meets Tuesday – at noon. County Administrator Todd Lawson will have a discussion with the Council on the recommendations from the Land Use Reform Working Group and the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. In Old Business the Council will revisit three land use applications – including the Belmead Farms Change of Zone, however there will be NO vote on Belmead. This is only to announce the closure of the record.
The afternoon session will deal with four applications for CMF Cool Spring, LLC – an ordinance to amend the future land use map of the Comp Plan for properties on both sides of Log Cabin Hill Road in the Cool Spring area off Route 9 to allow the property to from a low density area designation to the Coastal Area designation. The Change of Zone application is for a parcel of about 637 acres from AR-1 to medium density Residential and two Conditional Use applications for an educational facility and an assisted living facility and medical offices.
The County Council meeting begins at noon on Tuesday in the County Administration Building on The Circle in Georgetown.
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