Georgetown tiny home debate continues as pallet village owners sue town

Why Should Delaware Care? 
Homelessness and affordable housing have dominated the state and local conversations in Delaware in recent months. Georgetown was among the only localities to adopt a cottage housing ordinance last year as a strategy to tackle both issues, but recent steps by the town government are likely to reverse that. 

A nonprofit seeking to build a tiny home community within Georgetown has sued the municipality over its decision in July to impose a pause on the development of such housing.  

In a complaint filed last month, the nonprofit Springboard Delaware said the tiny home moratorium should not apply to its plans to build 122 cottages on a 14-acre property, near Sussex Academy. It argued that the application process had already begun — through meetings with state and local planning officials — well before the moratorium was adopted.

In response, a town attorney argued that the tiny home moratorium is applicable to Springboard Delaware’s plans because the organization had not formally submitted a site plan until September — after its July decision to impose the development pause. 

The lawsuit marks the latest turn in an ongoing battle between factions of residents in the Sussex County town advocating for competing approaches to homelessness and affordable housing.

It also comes less than a year after the town council voted to explicitly allow for the development of tiny homes on land zoned for urban residential use.

That tiny homes ordinance has since dominated the public conversation in Georgetown.

It has led to friction that has played out in the form of heated public comments at town council meetings, and calls for the ouster of the previous mayor posted on a prominent Facebook group.

Now, the lawsuit appears to be the first time the tensions have led to a legal claim for the town.

New electeds, new ideas

The previous town council, led by Mayor Bill West, overwhelmingly approved the cottage housing ordinance last December. 

It allowed for a cottage housing development to have up to 12 homes between 350 and 850 square feet on one acre of land, with additional open space and setback requirements within the design. 

Springboard Delaware, which already operated a pallet village transitional housing program in Georgetown, began discussions in January with state and local officials about plans to build cottage homes in line with the new ordinance. 

But in May, a new town council came into office with members who believed that the majority of residents did not want cottage houses.

Mayor Angela Townsend  and Councilmember Michael Briggs even campaigned on a platform of repealing the tiny home ordinance. 

By July, the town council voted to pause the review of any tiny home project proposal. They also created a task force to explore repealing the cottage housing ordinance altogether.

That same month, Judson Malone, executive director of Springboard Delaware said town leaders told him he would not be able to move forward with submitting a site plan for its project.

In response, Springboard Delaware filed its lawsuit on Sept. 11, alleging the town violated open meeting laws and town and state law.  

Malone and his attorney, Richard Forsten, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Georgetown’s town attorney, Stephani Ballard, also declined to comment. Townsend did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment. 

Amidst the pending litigation, the town council is moving forward with the process of repealing the cottage housing ordinance. The council on Monday considered a measure to strike the ordinance and is set to hold a final vote at its next meeting on Nov. 9. 

The town council has also recently interrogated Springboard Delaware’s existing operations.

During meetings in September and this month, the town council questioned whether Springboard Delaware’s pallet village is following rules outlined by the town and generating satisfactory outcomes to solve its homelessness problems. 

Councilmember Penuel Barrett, who has led the council charge to examine the pallet village operations this fall, told Spotlight Delaware he “wants to see proven results, and we’re not getting it out of them.”

What’s in the lawsuit? 

Springboard Delaware’s plan involves the construction of 122 units of affordable housing, ranging from 400 to 950 square feet on a 14-acre parcel within town limits. The tiny homes are to be for individuals who “cannot otherwise afford to rent larger housing types and more traditional apartments,” according to the lawsuit. 

The organization’s initial complaint, filed by Forsten, states that Springboard Delaware had a predevelopment meeting with town officials on Jan. 6, during which the town “did not express any major concerns with the proposed development.” 

Then, Springboard Delaware submitted a preliminary plan to the town and to the state’s Preliminary Land Use Service (PLUS), to which the state Office of Planning responded on Sept. 4 “strongly supporting” the proposed project.

Springboard Delaware subsequently submitted its preliminary plan to the town planning department on Sept. 11, but the town refused to review it, citing the council’s July vote for a moratorium. 

The lawsuit further argues that the town violated open meeting laws multiple times, by taking action at July and August town council meetings on the ordinance when the meeting agenda only listed a “discussion” of the measure — and not a vote.  

The complaint calls for a Delaware Chancery Court judge to void the town council’s pause of cottage housing projects and allow Springboard Delaware to proceed with its plan. 

Ballard, the town attorney, wrote a response to the complaint on Oct. 12, arguing that Springboard had not formally begun the development process as of the July 13 vote because they had not submitted a site plan to the town, so the moratorium is applicable. 

Ballard also wrote in the town’s response that Springboard Delaware did not own the property they seek to build on until Sept. 9, and did not exist as a legally incorporated entity until Sept. 4. Therefore, the project could not have proceeded with the town’s approval process until well after the July pause went into effect, he argued. 

The town’s response also rejects Springboard Delaware’s argument that the town council voted on ordinance when the agenda only listed a discussion, writing that “the wording of the agenda speaks for itself and clearly put the public on notice of discussion of possible modifications to the current Code provisions.” 

Chancery Court judge David Hume has been assigned to the case. A preliminary hearing had not been scheduled as of Oct. 26. 

Ordinance repeal 

The new town council began publicly discussing a repeal of the ordinance at the July 13 meeting, where the group voted 4-1 to halt review of new development proposals and appoint a committee to consider repealing the ordinance. 

After a brief discussion of the ordinance amongst an ad hoc committee, the motion to repeal went back into the hands of the town Planning Commission in September.

The Planning Commission voted 3-2 against repealing the ordinance, posing questions around why the town is revisiting an ordinance it recently approved. Still, the council moved forward with a first reading of the repeal ordinance on Oct. 26, and a final vote scheduled in early November. 

The discussion has consistently drawn the same group of about a dozen residents in favor of repealing the ordinance and a couple of residents advocating for keeping the measure at every town council meeting since July. 

Residents in favor have cited arguments that Georgetown already has enough affordable housing and individuals living in the tiny homes will detract from the town’s quality of life. 

“These little houses are not going to be people from Georgetown that are going to live in them,” resident Wanda Burton said at the Oct. 26 meeting. “We’re going to get people from everywhere that do not care about this town” 

Meanwhile, proponents say a cottage housing option is a reasonable way to address the affordable housing crisis in Sussex County.  

The ordinance repeal is likely to pass, as three of the five votes on council – Townsend, Briggs and Barrett – have publicly supported it in the past. 

Councilmember Tony Neal has expressed opposition to repealing the ordinance, while Council member Christina Diaz-Malone said she does not plan to vote due to a conflict of interest, because she is married to Judson Malone, the Springboard director. 

Barrett told Spotlight Delaware the town needs to “look deeper into some different things” before figuring out what affordable housing types might suit Georgetown. 

Diaz-Malone said she believes the town council is too focused on “rolling back any decisions made by the previous administration,” instead of really considering the best ways to address homelessness and housing needs in town. 

The vote outcome will not impact a 20 unit tiny housing project by Ocean View-based organization Little Living, which the town council approved this past February. 

Get Involved: The Georgetown Town Council will hold a final vote on the repeal of the cottage housing ordinance at its meeting scheduled for Monday, November 9 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Town Hall, located at 39 The Circle in Georgetown.