I just got a call back from Chris Coons regarding tha workforce housing meeting last night. He was between campaign stops, so our conversation was very abbreviated. Hopefully I get another call back later.
It was his contention that these are not done deals, but he didn’t have the plans in front of him while we were talking. I told him that were were concerned because two people on the Appoquinimink School District had stated that the district knows absolutely nothing about it.
Coons was of the impression that these are subject to the same scrutiny as any new development would be. I told him that we had asked, point blank, if these were done deals and if there was anything that we could do to stop these projects, all we got were non-committal glances from our elected officials at each other.
I am hoping that I get a call back from him soon. But maybe not.
I also spoke to C.R. McLeod from Coons’ office. I think he is the one that pushed Coons to call me back. He let me know that the next New Castle County Council meeting is September 16th at 7PM at the City/County meeting. Land Use committee will actually meet from 3:30-5:00 on the 16th as well.
The one thing that I did get out of all of this is that the County legal team believes that there is nothing that Chris Coons can do to impose an executive order to stop further applications for conversion to Workforce Housing. This is bad. It means that between now and September 16th, the developers in the county can still submit requests for even more developments and even if the county puts a moratorium on workforce housing, these could be grandfathered in.
I’ll post more after I speak to Land Use or Penrose Hollins.