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Shopping Center Scaled Back After Long Fight in Sussex County

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The battle over a major shopping center known as the Gills Neck Village Center near Lewes has finally come to an end.

The developer has agreed to cut the proposed project from 215-thousand square feet down to 75-thousand square feet.

In addition it will forego a zoning request for intense for intense commercial use and instead accept a B 1 rezoning for 8 acres.  

The Wilmington News Journal reports that this will also mean that the developer will not place a YMCA and a community theater next to the shopping center.

State Senator Ernie Lopez told the paper that resolution of the years of struggle followed efforts by himself and Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson for a scaled down development.

Local residents objected to bigger project and said it would have caused traffic severe congestion as well as potential pollution for the local drinking water source.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.