Comments and suggestion relative to the 2008 review and update of the City’s Comprehensive Development Plan can be submitted to the Planning Commission by e-mail to cdp2008@cityofrehoboth.com, or by letter/fax, and/or by participating at special workshops and hearings that will be held throughout the review process.

The Rehoboth Beach Comprehensive Development Plan: What Is It, How Do We Put It Together and Why Your Input Is So Important

The Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) is the principal document outlining the City of Rehoboth Beach’s goals and policies regarding the use of land.  It has been designed as a policy statement which should remain valid in the face of change over the years.  Properly used, the Plan is the basis for decision-making at all levels of government and will guide the public and private sectors toward beneficial activities affecting its people and land.

·         The CDP is an official legal document that must be generated by every State municipality.  The Plan must be approved by both the governing body of the municipality and by the State.  As such, it must be consistent with overall State development plans. 

·         The Planning Commission is specifically charged with the responsibility of developing and updating the CDP.

·         The State mandates that the Plan be reviewed and updated at 5-year intervals.

·         Although the Planning Commission is charged with its development, in doing so the Planning Commission and the resulting Plan benefits significantly from the input of the entire community. 

·          The Public is encouraged to participate in the process through written communication and/or attendance at public meetings convened by the Planning Commission.

·         When finally approved by the municipality's governing body and by the State, the CDP then represents, with legal status, the framework for future municipal planning. 

The Plan’s Evolution

The future of Rehoboth Beach belongs to its residents and comprehensive planning is a good way to capture that future. Rehoboth Beach has had a comprehensive development plan (CDP) in place since 1996. To develop the first Plan, the Planning Commission and dozens of citizen volunteers gathered data, debated issues and possible solutions, and, through the establishment of work groups and public hearings, sought widespread community input and advice. It was a homegrown plan that taught its many contributors the complexity and excitement of thinking about the future and moving it through the political framework. Because the 1996 Plan was the first comprehensive look at Rehoboth in many years, it was careful to spell out a series of “visions” for the City as well as dozens of specific actions to be taken to achieve those visions.

As required by the State of Delaware, the first revision of the 1996 Plan began in 2001 and produced the current Rehoboth Beach CDP in 2003. The current Plan, which can be found at www.cityofrehoboth.com/cdp.html retains and builds upon the visions of the earlier document and used the same intensive citizen input process involving public workshops, guest speakers, interviews, special information sessions and presentations, and public hearings.

It is now 2008 and time to review our work of five years ago, acknowledge our successes and failures, identify fresh concerns, and, if necessary, propose new comprehensive planning solutions that will allow us to make accurate and positive decisions about growth, change, and preservation in our City.  The Rehoboth Beach Planning Commission is charged with this review and invites your contribution and participation via: submission of suggestions and comments by e-mail to cdp2008@cityofrehoboth.com or by letter/fax, by participating at special workshops and hearings that will be held throughout the review process, and by attending the Commission’s regular monthly meetings.  Rehoboth Beach has a solid history of citizen-based planning and that tradition will continue as we look to the future for our 2008 Comprehensive Development Plan.  Further information and reports on the status of the CDP 2008 update can be found at  www.cityofrehoboth.com/cdp2008.html

Our Visions

The visions of our current Plan are worth noting because they offer a description of the City as it should exist some 15 to 20 years in the future. The visions don’t focus on what is wrong, they focus on what is possible, and describe Rehoboth as though these possibilities have already been achieved. They are built upon those aspects of Rehoboth that make it a desirable place to live and work -- the beachfront, the tourism industry, the quality of the residential areas, the level of community services, and the nature of its business community.

A Vision for Water Resources: Rehoboth Beach's careful use and preservation of its oceanfront, canal, and adjacent waterways is at the heart of its social and economic vitality.

The highest priority in Rehoboth Beach is the care and protection of its great natural resources -- the oceanfront, canal, lakes, and adjacent waterways. The City provides careful access to the water, protects views to and from the water, maintains an appropriate scale and use of structures along the water, supplies the public facilities necessary for users of the water, and works collaboratively with State and federal agencies to ensure their maintenance. The guiding principles are preservation of the natural processes at work along the oceanfront, canal, inland bays, and lakes and continuation of the neighborly appeal of Rehoboth's water areas.

A Vision of Town Character and Community Services: Rehoboth Beach is a year-round, full-service community with seasonal tourism as its major industry. It maintains a significant town infrastructure to serve all of its community interests -- its natural environment, its residences, its businesses, its tourists, and its regional function.

Rehoboth Beach is a self-sustaining and physically integrated community where residents, property owners, and tourists, be they retirees, business people, individuals, or families may find a home, recreation, security, and a sense of permanence and pride that characterize our best towns. It is a careful blend of residence and resort that draws a loyal tourist clientele to its activities and places.  It has identified the community-serving elements that are critical to maintain living quality such as open spaces, libraries, senior facilities, and places of worship and strives to provide them. Particularly important is the provision of 21^st Century technology to the community so that the best communication access possible is available to government, business, and neighbors. The town is not only the key supplier of essential needs and services to its own residents and visitors but also to the residents of surrounding areas. This regional function helps maintain services that the community cannot sustain on its own. And just as it is constructed to accommodate the variety of its citizens and visitors, its members have built the organizations and tools for self-determination necessary to achieve this variety.

A Vision for Neighborhoods: Rehoboth Beach's residential areas are reminiscent of a slower era and reflect a small town neighborliness.

Rehoboth Beach is a retreat of green places, ocean spaces, and pleasant memories. It is a community that takes special pride in the appearance of its streets and buildings, in the quality and the preservation of its natural environment, its history and historic places, and in the retention of its places of special beauty and interest. It gives continuous attention to the physical connections between past and present, between home and work, and between resident and visitor. Its neighborhoods are orderly, walkable, and diverse in architecture, dwelling type, spacing, and size.

A Vision for Business: Rehoboth Beach's downtown is a balanced mix of year-round and seasonal businesses with a distinctive, pedestrian character.

The downtown of Rehoboth Beach is readily identifiable in extent, non-uniform in its mix of businesses, and controlled in architecture and signage. The residential scale of its buildings is linked to its surroundings and the pedestrian. It is oriented to walkers first, automobiles second and contains a mix of private and public uses, year-round and seasonal operations, and is dominated by locally-owned, small businesses. All of the business operators and property owners share a responsibility for the year-round care and appearance of their establishments as a way of maintaining the overall viability of the downtown area.

Beginning The Review

The Rehoboth Beach Planning Commission began its revision work by asking its members and the City Commissioners to independently review the current Plan and note areas where attention is needed i.e.

            • things in the Plan that have been accomplished

            • things in the Plan that are in process of being addressed

            • things identified in the Plan that need to addressed

            • things that warrant either high or low priority

            • things not in the plan that should be included in the update

            • developments that are planned in the City/County area that should be considered

            • anything else that you think would be helpful as we begin our work.

To further focus the work, initial interviews were held with interested groups and citizens, State planning requirements were reviewed, and several “scopes of work” and organizational techniques were investigated by the Planning Commission. Based on these initial efforts the following Priority Areas of Focus were formulated. These topics will be used to organize Planning Commission and public discussions and focus attention and effort on the issue areas of greatest concern to Rehoboth Beach residents. The six Areas of Focus are:

1. Environmental Protection (e.g. water resources and their protection, the Lakes & their buffers, wastewater treatment and disposal, TMDL’s, Canal use)

2. Traffic Management (e.g. performance goals, parking, resident service needs, transit from Rt 1, downtown loop service)

3. Preservation and Redevelopment (e.g. preservation of residential neighborhoods, commercial redevelopment potential, convention center/parking deck/police & fire needs, Baltimore & Wilmington Ave. and 1^st & 2^nd St. streetscape, public/private partnerships, ADA compliance, zoning changes, affordable housing)

4. Administration (e.g. intergovernmental coordination, code enforcement, 5 year Capital Improvement Program, annexation strategy)

5. Integrated Walks/Paths/Parks/Recreation Plan

6. Broad, future-oriented “visioning.” Ignoring constraints, what would Rehoboth ideally look like 10 to 20 years in the future?

If other items of concern arise during the review, they will, of course, be studied and resolved for the Plan revision.

Continuing the Review

The following Work Plan has been prepared to complete the review and update of Rehoboth Beach’s CDP by December 2008.

1. January & February: Regular PC Meeting in January

a. PC members finalize plans/methods to assure attendance at public meetings e.g. web announcements, postcards, better marketing ideas, and implement communication plan by early February.

b. Place State CDP requirements on RB website and set up e-mail communication network as suggested by RB IT manager. 

c.  Complete all logistics required for March Public Meeting(s).

2.  March 8, 2008 10:30 AM - Conduct Public Meeting #1

a. Present revision requirements, current Plan substance, current Plan accomplishments, areas of continuing concern, key areas for investigation currently identified by the PC, proposed schedule

b. Present Tevebaugh Associates information on traffic

c. Inform public about website and e-mail systems for the CDP review/update

            d. Public comment

            e. Schedule April PC Workshop meeting

3. April thru July, 2008 - Regular PC Meetings and Special Monthly Workshops

a. Prepare Plan revision agenda for each monthly PC meeting based on the identified priority topics

b. PC Workshops tentatively scheduled for April 12, May 10, June 7, and July 12 (all workshops are on Saturday prior to regularly scheduled PC meeting.  Because of summer rental turnovers, it was suggested that June and July meetings be held in the afternoon.)

            c. PC discusses issues and develops responses and directions

            d. Prepare written Plan modifications for July 14th PC meeting

e. Complete all logistics including meeting room arrangements for July Public Meetings #2 and September Public Meetings #3.

e.  Post PC-approved “final draft” on website by Tuesday, July 15, and have hard copies available to public by Wed, July 16

f.  By June 15, send reminder postcards to property owners regarding July 12 PC workshop, July 14 PC meeting, availability of ‘draft’ on July 15/16, and – most important – July 25/26 Public Meetings (public needs to reserve these dates well in advance to be able to attend)

   4.  July, 2008 - Conduct Public Meetings #2 [Tentative for Friday, July 25 pm & Saturday, July 26]

            a. Report on update of all Plan data and projections

            b. Progress report on revisions

            c. Issues for which additional public input is desired

            d. Public comment

   5. August, 2008 – August 9 Workshop and August 11 Regular PC Meeting