Public Comments

Public Comments to the Council

General Comments

• At the beginning of every Council Meeting, the public is allowed to speak for 3 minutes on any topic that the Council has control over.

Comments on Zoning Change/Conditional Use Applications or Amendment to the County Ordinances

Zoning Change and Conditional Use applications require 2 public hearings - in front of the Planning & Zoning Commission and the County Council.

Each hearing notice must be published in 2 newspapers at least 15 days prior to the hearing (in the Bay to Bay News formerly known as Delaware State News and another local newspaper), and the hearing notice must be displayed at the site of the proposed application. The hearing notice letters must be mailed to property owners within 200 ft of the proposed property.

Usually up until the end of the public hearing, public record is open and the public comments are accepted while the public record is open.

Public can make comments to the Council by calls, emails or letters before the hearing, but cannot engage in discussions with the Council. It is a complicated issue, but in short, the Council is acting as a Quasi-judicial body in these cases and cannot discuss the application without the presence of both sides - Ex Parte Communication (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_code_of_judicial_conduct/model_code_of_judicial_conduct_canon_2/rule2_9expartecommunications/)

During the public hearing, the public can speak and are allowed to use visual presentation, such as PowerPoint.

P&Z Commission and the Council can extend the public hearing if the hearing gets very lengthy; they can either close the public record or leave it open; or they can leave the public record open for specific issues; or they can inquire the state agencies (DelDOT or DNREC) and wait for their responses and give the public to comments solely on those agency responses.

Comments on Amendment to the County Ordinances

When the County proposes to change the existing County Ordinances, such as zoning laws or change to the zoning maps in the Sussex Comprehensive Plan, they are to have 2 public hearings - Planning & Zoning and County Council.

Each hearing notice must be published in 2 newspapers (in the Bay to Bay News formerly known as Delaware State News and News Journal) at least 15 days prior to the hearing.

Usually up until the end of the public hearing, public record is open and the public comments are accepted while the public record is open.

Public can make comments to the Council by calls, emails or letters before the hearing. Unlike the specific land use applications, the Council (or P&Z Commissioners) can engage in discussions with the public before the public hearing.

During the public hearing, the public can speak and are allowed to use visual presentation, such as PowerPoint.