Massive Logisticcenter warehouses near Middletown have approval revoked

Lina PortmanJune 7, 2024

43 5 minutes read

A 2 million-square-foot LogistiCenter near Middletown is among the largest warehouses proposed in the county.
Its developer, Dermody Properties, sued New Castle County for delays
After review, the Department of Physical Planning revoked its approval of the project

It seems the warehouse wars in southern New Castle County will never be over.

A 2.4 million square foot LogistiCenter warehouse project north of Middletown, hotly contested by local residents and the subject of litigation by its developer, appears to be sent back to the trenches.

County Councilman David Carter announced Wednesday that he plans to withdraw an ordinance that would have given the green light to the long-delayed and planned “LogistiCenter of New Castle County,” an ambitious two-warehouse project near the village of Bayberry, on Route 301 west of Jamison Corner Road.

The project was previously close to approval by the New Castle County Council, after the Department of Land Planning certified that the project complied with county code.

But on Tuesday, the Department of Planning issued a letter rescinding that previous approval. So what happens ? Is the warehouse dead? And what has changed? Here's what's happening.

The LogistiCenter has long been a controversial project and is the subject of a lawsuit

New Castle County's LogistiCenter, first proposed in 2021, has long been one of the largest and most controversial projects amid a New Castle County warehouse boom that has sparked concern among residents about the risk of truck traffic causing nearby houses and windows to shake. residential areas.

The controversial warehouse boom:This quiet community near Middletown fears warehouse plans are taking shape next door.

More:What to know about Delaware warehouse and industrial projects planned for 2024

The plans, developed by Nevada-based Dermody Properties, include two side-by-side logistics warehouses on 229 acres of land along Jamison Corner Road, totaling 1.4 million square feet and 962,000 square feet.

Local residents have opposed the project at council meetings, with pages of public outcry denouncing future traffic or threats to public safety, and speculating that the site is destined to become an Amazon fulfillment center.

Dermody representatives said at council meetings that they did not have particular end users in mind and that traffic would likely be better than a business park of the same size.

That sparks a familiar conflict in the once-rural lands south of the canal in New Castle County, as a massive influx of new residents and future warehouse developers compete for the limited capacity of roads originally designed for rural populations .

The flood of new affluent residents is resoundingly moving outside the area for work. New warehouses bring truck traffic, but also daily commutes from warehouse workers who probably can't afford the new half-million-dollar homes nearby.

The LogistiCenter would come just north of the growing Bayberry community north of Middletown, which has expanded by at least 1,700 homes since 2010. Construction is expected to begin this year on at least 500 additional Bayberry homes, in more of a shopping complex. this will include a Weis Markets.

Amid resistance and traffic problems, the LogistiCenter has been at a standstill for months.

By the end of 2023, the project had passed land use and state review, and was submitted to the County Council for approval. A quirk of New Castle County law means that no matter how unpopular a building is, council members cannot deny a project that meets all zoning and code requirements.

Starting in December, South New Castle County Council members Bill Bell and David Carter referred the project to the Department of Land Planning for a series of technical clarifications on traffic and infrastructure, saying that They felt that the project did not comply with the code.

The LogistiCenter ordinance was filed in December 2023, then filed again, then left on the table so long that it might as well have been a flower arrangement.

In April, Dermody filed a lawsuit against the county, claiming review of the project had been willfully and arbitrarily delayed — and demanded a quick response from the Department of Planning.

For now, it looks like Dermody finally has his answer: “No.”

Why did Land Use approve, then disapprove the LogistiCenter project?

Land Use's response gave credence to some of the concerns expressed by Councilors Bell and Carter.

In a letter dated Tuesday, June 4, the department called it rare, but not uncommon, for county council members to discover code compliance issues that land use had not considered when approval of a project. The letter called this process part of the normal checks and balances when reviewing a project.

The issues involved were technical, but the ultimate conclusion drawn from the letter was relatively simple. The LogistiCenter project would likely generate far too much traffic – 427 trips per day during evening rush hours – to avoid carrying out an additional traffic study.

Previously, the project had benefited from an exemption on this subject, due to a 2013 traffic study already carried out by the State. But objections and questions from the county council led to further review, according to the land use letter.

The conclusion was that the warehouse would likely increase traffic on Jamison Corner Road by up to 15 percent above projected levels, making a traffic waiver “inappropriate.” The benchmark for a traffic impact study waiver is an increase of only 5%.

“Going forward, the applicant has two options under the CDU,” the land use assessment states. “(1) revise its plans to reduce the generation of proposed trips in accordance with the TID; or (2) conduct a traffic impact study (TIS) for the development as proposed.”

That is: make the project generate less traffic, or conduct a traffic study to show that the existing plan could be supported by the current infrastructure.

What's next for LogistiCenter projects near Bayberry

Councilor Carter commended the Planning Department, saying he believed they took his and Councilor Bell's technical questions seriously, as part of a long and complicated review. He plans to withdraw the LogistiCenter ordinance at the county council meeting on Tuesday, June 11, he said, after the land use approval was rescinded. He stressed that this result does not reject the project, or even send it back to the drawing board.

“Essentially what's needed for this LogistiCenter is just for them to come back and demonstrate that the resulting traffic will not cause infrastructure issues,” Carter said.

Dermody has until the fall to conduct such a study, Carter noted. The LogistiCenter would again be eligible for council approval if the results are favorable.

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In the meantime, warehouse construction will continue apace nearby. Another warehouse project is well underway right across the street from the LogistiCenter, just across Jamison Corner.

The Scott Run Commerce project, approved in 2023 on the east side of Jamison Corner Road, will add about 1.4 million square feet of warehouse space in four buildings just south of Hyetts Corner Road.

Three of these planned buildings, totaling nearly 1.3 million square feet of warehouse or industrial space, are still available for lease to the right tenant.

Matthew Korfhage is a business and development reporter in the Delaware region, covering all things land and money: openings and closings, construction and the many businesses that call the First State home. Send tips and insults to [email protected].

Long-standing plans for warehouses totaling more than 2 million square feet

Lina Portman

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