The Cedar Neck & Hickman Preservation Coalition.

Petition Safety & Environmental Protection Statement
We, the residents of Ocean View, Sussex County, and concerned citizens of Delaware, petition the Sussex County Council and the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission (https://sussexcountyde.gov/ to deny or drastically scale down Conditional Use No. 2548 for a proposed 54-unit multi-family condo development at 38492 Hickman Road. This project sits on environmentally fragile wetlands, lacks basic infrastructure, introduces severe public safety hazards, and threatens pristine local wildlife and state-protected preserves. 

1. Infrastructure Failure & Inadequate Ingress/Egress (Public Safety Mandate)
Under Sussex County zoning laws, conditional uses must not adversely affect surrounding area roadways or public safety. 

The Reality: Hickman Road is a narrow, unlit, single-lane dead-end road with no shoulders or sidewalks. It terminates directly into Fresh Pond State Park.
    •    The Risk: Hickman Road feeds exclusively into Cedar Neck Road—which is also a single-lane, dead-end road. Funneling traffic from 54 new multi-family units onto two cascading dead-end roads creates a logistical choke point. This infrastructure cannot support heavy construction vehicles or emergency services (fire, ambulance, police), creating a severe public safety hazard that violates baseline county development criteria.

2. Traffic & Pedestrian Safety Hazards (History of Cyclist Fatalities)
Delaware code requires that developments ensure the safety of public right-of-ways.

    •    The Reality: Hickman Road is historically farmland, lacking any pedestrian infrastructure, streetlights, or shoulders. It is a highly frequented corridor for cyclists and walkers accessing local nature preserves.
    •    The Risk: This area has already suffered tragic cyclist fatalities. Adding a minimum of 100+ daily vehicular trips from a high-density community onto an unlit, shoulderless road directly defies Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) (https://deldot.gov/ multi-modal safety goals and places human lives at immediate risk. 

3. Incompatibility with the Sussex County Comprehensive Plan
By law, any conditional use or zoning exception must align with the goals of the Sussex County Comprehensive Plan (https://sussexcountyde.gov/comprehensive-plan 

    •    The Argument: The Comprehensive Plan outlines a framework to protect the rural character of coastal areas, prevent over-saturation, and ensure development matches infrastructure capacity. Forcing a dense, 54-unit suburban-style multi-family complex onto an isolated 12.8-acre parcel entirely out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood is a direct violation of this legally binding planning document. 

4. Environmental Degradation of Wetlands & Flood Zones
The property consists of critical wetland and flood zone acreage. 

•    The Argument: Under the Clean Water Act (Section 404) and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) (https://dnrec.delaware.gov/ regulations, development in environmentally sensitive coastal zones is strictly regulated. Paving over these wetlands will drastically reduce natural stormwater absorption, triggering severe flooding for existing neighbors, degrading local water tables, and violating state clean water mandates.

5. Destruction of Protected Wildlife Corridors
The parcel functions as a vital, active ecological corridor wedged between Fresh Pond State Park and the James Farm Nature Preserve.

    •    The Argument: This land provides critical habitat for local wildlife, including foxes, deer, turtles, rabbits, and possums. Fragmenting this acreage with heavy residential density permanently disrupts these state-recognized ecosystems, pushing wildlife onto dangerous, unlit roads and undermining the public investments made to protect Fresh Pond and James Farm.

Our Demand to the Government
We call upon Sussex County officials to uphold their legal duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community. We demand that Conditional Use No. 2548 be DENIED. At a absolute minimum, the project must be heavily scaled down to a low-density single-family layout that does not require zoning variances, includes developer-funded sidewalks and streetlights, and completely preserves all wetland boundaries. 

Sign this petition to protect Ocean View’s environment, keep our roads safe, and force Sussex County to put residents over reckless development!