CapeGazette.com - Covering Delaware's Cape Region Tue, Jan 15, 2008 Plantation Road Coalition to fight Western Parkway By Ryan Mavity, Cape Gazette staff
Residents of The Plantations, Plantations East, Sandy Brae and Jimtown, among others, are banding together to stand up against the Delaware Department of Transportation’s proposal for a Western Parkway that the department hopes will alleviate traffic on Route 1.
During a spirited press conference, held Saturday, Jan. 12, at Israel United Methodist Church on Plantation Road, the Plantation Road Coalition announced its formation and its support of a “no build” for the proposed Western Parkway.
The coalition was formed by Plantation Road property owners Betty Deacon and Joan Deaver as a way to provide some sort of representation for homeowners in dealing with the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT).
“I’m pretty uplifted by all of this,” Deacon said. “We’re together today and I hope we will stay together to represent ourselves because together we have more power and we can get more done.”
DelDOT has proposed three alternatives it believes will lighten the load on Route 1 by diverting traffic around the highway to Route 24 and then having cars take 24 to get back onto Route 1.
DelDOT’s first alternative, “orange,” would divert traffic onto Plantation Road and end at Route 24. DelDOT’s proposal would widen Plantation Road into a four-lane road. The coalition opposed this idea because of the loss of land for property owners on the road and because the increased traffic would make it difficult for residents of Plantations East to get out of the neighborhood.
“It’s a road to nowhere,” Deacon said. “They need to go back and they need to take a look at how they can get cars off Route 1 farther north of here.”
The other two alternatives, “yellow” and “green,” would divert traffic through the predominately African-American and Native American neighborhood of Jimtown, again leading to Route 24.
Representing Jimtown was Rosalyn J. Allen Echols, who said her community was not afforded the chance to speak about the plan at DelDOT workshops.
“Our position on this is that we are not for the building of the parkway, because, as has been stated by others, it just ducks the problem down the street onto Route 24,” Echols said. “But in the process, it takes out an established neighborhood. We have been there for forever and we are not interested in having the parkway disrupt our neighborhood.”
Besides residents of Jimtown, farmers in the area who would be affected by the “green” alternative, which leads through agricultural land, also came to the press conference to voice their concerns.
Representing the agricultural community was Virginia Lewis, who said her farm would be cut in half by the parkway.
“We were told it may take 20 years for this project to go through,” Lewis said, her voice quivering. “In the meantime, our land is being held hostage. We need to band together and keep this from happening.”
Two guest speakers at the event were Cecil Wilson of the Central Delaware branch of the NAACP and Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach.
Wilson suggested the coalition seek a court injunction against DelDOT to help stop the department from moving forward with the parkway, as well as look at other options to slow down the process.
Schwartzkopf said the project might not be as close to happening as coalition members might think because of funding issues and the region’s traffic problems are due to the fact that Sussex County officials did not try to stop the rapid development of the area. Schwartzkopf said he is doing what he can to curb development by proposing an adequate facilities bill in the state legislature that would make developers pay for the infrastructure of properties they develop.
Things got a bit contentious at the meeting when Schwartzkopf did not specifically endorse a “no build” policy, although he did not endorse DelDOT’s project either.
However, Echols said legislators should be doing more to keep neighborhoods like Jimtown from being eradicated to make way for more development.
“To me, it’s not county council that’s the problem,” Echols said. “It’s county council, it’s the representatives, its DelDOT and state government. It’s those people who are not standing up and saying, ‘This should not happen to the citizens that I represent.’”
While he did not endorse the Western Parkway project, Schwartzkopf said he was not opposed to putting turn lanes in along Plantation Road to help make things safer. He also said he thinks DelDOT should be looking into using Route 5 as a bypass to get to Route 1.
“Part of my job is to look toward the future,” Schwartzkopf said. “I want to see what they say.”
Contact Ryan Mavity at ryanm@capegazette.com 302.645.7700