Sussex County divided over plan for shopping center half the size of Christiana Mall

In recent weeks, hundreds of residents have flooded Facebook comment sections to share their reactions. Some expressed glee with the plan to bring popular retailers to their corner of Delaware. 

But others say the 13,000 additional cars the shopping center would bring to the roads on an average weekday is just too many for the already busy Route 24 corridor.

“I fear that this mammoth shopping center, even if it has attractive stores — or particularly because it has attractive stores — is going to vastly increase traffic,” State Representative Claire Snyder Hall (D-Rehoboth Beach) said at a recent county meeting about the project.

While Costco, Target and Whole Foods are planned as anchor stores, the shopping center would also have a Ross, Nordstrom Rack, Hobby Lobby and Dick’s Sporting Goods, according to the developer, Southside Investment Partners. 

Southside Investment Partners President Ben Hoskins said he could not share copies of agreements with future tenants, stating that they are confidential. But, he said, representatives from Target and Costco attended a recent county planning meeting. 

“I promise it’s real,” Hoskins said, chuckling. 

Costco and Target each said by email that they could not comment on potential agreements with Southside Investment Partners. Whole Foods did not respond to a request for comment. 

Approval process for Atlantic Fields

To move forward, Southside Investment Partners first has to convince the Sussex County Council to change the zoning for property to allow for retail businesses. The project could then be built unless subsequent plans fail to meet certain county standards.  

For years, houses and shopping centers have replaced farmland in eastern Sussex County. Recently, residents have pushed back, and now are opposing a shopping center on Route 24. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE

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But first the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission will weigh in. 

During a meeting on Sept. 17, commission members did not make a decision about whether to recommend a zoning change, even as dozens of residents attended to make their positions known to the public body.

In all, 15 residents came in support of the project, while 62 attended in opposition. 

Many residents in opposition wore matching black shirts with stickers that said “No Zone Change.”

The zoning commission will discuss the project further at their next meeting on Wednesday. 

Hoskins, the developer, said he was told the full county council will hold a public hearing on the plan during its Oct. 21 meeting. The agenda for that meeting has not yet been released, but the Sussex County Council’s public hearings typically start at 1:30 p.m.

Land use document 

Resident reactions

The area surrounding the proposed Atlantic Fields development is nearly all zoned for agricultural and housing. 

But, for some who spoke at the planning commission meeting in September, that has led to too many homes being planned for the area just inland from the beaches.  

Millsboro resident Tom Hinderliter said he prefers the shopping center plan to what he said was the likely alternative – more homes. He said a shopping center would serve residents that already live in the area rather than bringing in new ones.

And those new residents bring more traffic.

“When you think you got a shorter shortcut somewhere, you’d have a development going here,” Hinderliter said. “Next thing you know, you come down next month, you have another development.”

Atlantic Fields would be right down the road from another controversial development called Belle Mead, which proposes more retail stores as well as apartments. 

But Gary Vorsheim, resident of a subdivision adjacent to the proposed Atlantic Fields site, said that the shopping center would bring new people to the area, asserting that Maryland residents would travel there to shop because of Delaware’s low taxes. 

“This is not just a shopping center. This is a destination mall,” Vorsheim said. 

Millsboro resident Cynthia Anderson-Clay said she has spoken with medical professionals in the area who have had difficulty attracting staff because they want to live in a place that has stores like Whole Foods. 

“We have to drive up to Wilmington to be able to go to certain stores,” Anderson-Clay said.

This Whole Foods location at Atlantic Fields would be the first in the state, marking a long-desired arrival for the high-end grocery store.

There is only one Costco in the state – at the Christiana Mall. The closest Target is in Dover. 

But Belle Terre resident Amber Day said that building new stores does not make sense when other businesses in the area are struggling to find workers. 

“We all need these stores, but push them out to an area where there are people that can fill these employment requirements,” Day said. 

State and county officials are currently taking efforts that they say will bring more affordable housing to eastern Sussex County. 

If approved, the shopping center development would also employ nearly 1,000 construction workers during building, and then about 1,750 permanent staff members, according to a presentation from the developer to county officials.

Celia McDermott said she moved to Belle Terre recently from the Atlanta area. She could drive to many Costcos near Atlanta, but she left because new businesses kept being built without the infrastructure to support it, she said. 

“The reason that so many people have moved to this area is because of the beauty of it, not because there’s a Costco,” McDermott said. 

Hoskins said if the zoning change is approved, he expects Atlantic Fields would open in 2028.