Town of Frankford
Staff Reporter
Town of Frankford
Frankford officials announced this week that a solar farm project rejected by the Town may be back after the developer sought relief in court.
The Frankford Town Council had previously turned down a request to build a solar farm on land that sits in the middle of town, in an area that had been earmarked in Frankford’s Comprehensive Plan in 2020 as a potential future “town center.”
Town Council President Greg Welch said at the Tuesday, July 7, town council meeting that, in January of 2023, the council had received a recommendation from the Town’s Planning & Zoning Commission to deny the project, based on the commission’s assessment that the plans for the facility did not match the Comprehensive Plan or the intent of the “neighborhood business” zoning category in which the land is located.
In May 2024, the council held a public hearing on the proposed project, and Welch said, “There was hardly any support for a solar farm” from the public expressed during the meeting.
At the time, Joe Shanahan — a representative of the project’s developer, RWE Clean Energy LLC, based in New York — said he was “disappointed” in the council’s decision. The application for site-plan approval had been submitted by Dukes Farm Limited Partnerships, in which Burt Dukes and Hal Dukes are the principals.
Since then, the developers have also applied for a conditional-use permit for a 69-acre parcel near Selbyville. The Sussex County Council voted 4-1 against that proposal on May 19, citing concerns over the loss of farmland.
The company had sought relief from the Frankford denial in Sussex County Superior Court, citing the fact that the council members did not give their individual reasons for voting against the proposed solar farm following the public hearing.
In the ensuing months, attorneys for the Town and the developer have “gone back and forth,” Welch said. The result is that the parties have settled, with the Town agreeing to pay the developer $22,000 in lieu of taxes on the property.
On Tuesday night, Council Vice President Kyle Quillen said the Town now needs to review its actions in the case to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“These are ordinances and town codes that were here long before us,” Quillen said. The remaining question, he said, is “How do we make sure it never happens again? Where were the banana peels?” in this situation, Quillen wondered.
The bottom line, in the case of the property in question — which sits across from the Town Park — is that “the family wants it to be a field. We can’t make them make it a town center. It’s a done deal.”
“We did try fighting it,” Welch said, while admitting that the council erred in not giving their reasons for denial during the vote. He said the Town’s legal fees, about $14,000, were paid for by its insurance.
Staff Reporter
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The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas.
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