Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission v. Smokey Hollow, LLC

Summary

The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part a Superior Court certiorari judgment striking two of 19 conditions the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission attached to its approval of Smokey Hollow, LLC's 82-lot subdivision. The Court declined to adopt either a multi-factor test or a nuisance-based test for the reasonableness of subdivision conditions, holding instead that a condition must be rationally related to addressing, in the public interest, some potential land use impact of the particular development, cannot rest primarily on generalized community opposition, and must be accompanied by stated reasons. It reversed as to Condition A (elimination of lot 64) because the Superior Court ignored the Commission's stated environmental and flooding rationale, remanding so the Commission can develop evidentiary support and state its reasons; it affirmed the striking of Condition O (a 25-foot fixed non-tidal wetlands buffer) because the Commission never explained its necessity and its after-the-fact explanation came too late.