According to Axiom Metrics, the country needs at least 4.6 million new apartments by 2030.

39 million Americans call an apartment home. Today, demand for apartments is at unprecedented levels as the number of renters has reached an all-time high. According to Axiom Metrics (www.nmhc.org) annual growth in renter households has exceeded 800,000 on average since 2010 – and almost as much as 1.2 million by some measures. This trend is expected to not only continue, but rapidly increase over the next decade. Two major demographic shifts are having the strongest impact on demand for rental housing: The rise of young adults as the largest demographic group in the U.S. and the aging of the baby boomers.

Delaware’s need for apartments mirrors that found nationally. The Delaware Housing Needs Assessment for 2015-2020, prepared for the Delaware State Housing Authority, acknowledged that there is an increased demand for rental housing as more households wait to purchase a home or transfer, for a variety of reasons, to rental housing. In addition, with a growing senior population and smaller families in general, the need for larger housing is waning. Balancing these factors, the Needs Assessment estimated a need for approximately 7530 new rental units within the next 5 years across the state.

The current plan contains 48 age-restricted mid-rise apartment units and 48 age-restricted twin homes and small single-family homes. These would be age-restricted within the meaning of Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §3601 et seq., requiring each single-family home or apartment so restricted to be occupied by at least one person aged 55 or older. Under the term of the restrictions to be recorded on those lots and/or apartments, no children under the age of 18 would be permitted to live in those units.

Development of the property will be required to meet all NCC Land Use/Engineering and DNREC regulations for drainage and stormwater management. These regulations were not in place when many of the older existing areas in Brandywine Hundred were developed. As such, this project will be held to a higher design standard with respect to drainage and stormwater management than many existing developed areas in NCC. The project will be required to demonstrate that stormwater runoff after development will be less than in the existing condition. Detailed stormwater management plans and extensive computations will be submitted to NCC Engineering for review. At this time, a variety of stormwater management practices are anticipated including stormwater ponds and a number of green-technology best management practices such as bioretention areas, rain gardens, bioswales, and infiltration basins. These types of facilities – and the current NCC / DNREC regulations – encourage the on-site recharge of stormwater, rather than promoting runoff. After completion of the development and implementation of proposed stormwater practices, the runoff will be less than the current condition.

The following development options are permitted as a matter of right within the S zone include:

i. Single Family detached (up to 174 units depending on the development plan utilized)

ii. Apartments, Townhomes, Twin Homes, and Single Family as part of an open space planned development

iii. Group Home

iv. Assembly and Worship

v. Schools

vi. Institutional Uses

vii. Public Services

xi. Park and Ride Facility

The Apartment portion of the community will be managed by a single apartment management company which will be responsible for the maintenance of all areas within the apartment lot.

The residential portions of the community will be managed by both a Maintenance Corporation and a Service Corporation. The Maintenance Corporation will take, in accordance with the UDC, ownership and maintenance of the open space within the Community at such time as the Department of Land Use certifies that it has been completed in accordance with the Record Plan and the UDC. The Service Corporation will be responsible for on-lot maintenance (grass cutting and snow removal) for those lots within the age-restricted portion of the community.

The streets within the residential community will be owned and maintained by DelDOT, as will the Boulevard. The apartment accessways and parking areas will be maintained by the owner of the apartment lot.

Pricing Starting at:

Studio $1200
1 BD $1500
2 BD $1700
3 BD $1900

a. Townhomes: $400-$450k
b. Twins: $475-$525k
c. Small SF: $575-$700k
d. Large SF: $700-$900k

No. Capano Residential does not own or manage any apartment communities that are operated under the State’s Section 8 Program and will not be doing so here. The project will be required to comply with New Castle County’s Moderately Priced Housing ordinance.

Yes. In addition to recently commenced projects filed with the Department of Land Use, the study accounts for the traffic impacts of other ‘committed developments’ – those projects which are approved for construction, yet unbuilt at the time the study was performed. The committed developments included in the Brandywine Country Club TIS were:

1. Pilot School – 91,000 square foot building, 31 classrooms

2. Columbia Place – 149 active adult condominiums

3. Concord Mall – 378,000 unbuilt additional square footage

4. Seasons Pizza – 110 seat restaurant and 1,600 sf retail unbuilt at time of study

5. Astra Zeneca Campus – 1.700,000 additional square footage for office and research/development

6. Concord Plaza Mixed Use project

7. The study also accounted for 5% growth in traffic from 2016-2026, to account for additional developments not specifically included.

a.) Based on the current plan, site trip generation from this community will add approximately 140 trips during the peak hour to Shipley Road, which is less than if the project were developed as 174 single family homes which would generate approximately 179 trips during the peak hour along Shipley Rd.  This is due to the fact that a development under current zoning would only result in a single entrance from Shipley Road.

The project is responsible for the following:

1. Extend the northbound right-turn lane at Righter Parkway / Concord Square Shopping Center to accommodate deceleration and queue distance of turning vehicles.

2. Extend the westbound left-turn lane at the intersection of Naamans Road / Shipley Road to accommodate deceleration and queue distance of turning vehicles.

3. Construct a full-movement unsignalized site access at the intersection of Shipley Rd / Drexel Drive.

4. Demolish portions of the existing building at Concord Square Shopping Center to allow for a boulevard connection from Shipley Road through Concord Square Shopping Center to the intersection of US202/Righter Parkway.

a.)  It creates redundancy in the transportation network and allows traffic to disperse rather than concentrate. It allows residents along Shipley Road and points east to have access to the commercial corridor without traversing the intersections of Naamans Rd / 202 or Silverside Rd / 202. As estimated by DelDOT, based on the nature of the connector road, it is estimated that approx. 50 additional vehicles during the PM peak hour will utilize the Connector Road via Shipley Road to access Concord Square Shopping Center for those located on Shipley Road and Points East – a rate of less than one vehicle per minute.

b.)  It provides the opportunity to locate an adjacent pedestrian greenway ultimately connecting Shipley Road and points east to the First State National Park.

c.)  It provides multiple points of access, which is important for emergency services purposes, in the event that one access is unavailable.

a.)  The existing zone would allow the construction of approximately 174 single family detached homes. This would generate approximately 179 vehicle trips during the PM peak period of travel. However, in this scenario, the only access to the site would be on Shipley Road.

By comparison, the proposed project is anticipated to generate 140 vehicle trips during the PM peak hour to Shipley Road given recent plan changes that reduce density and age-restrict a number of units. The TIS was approved at a plan density that accounted for 167 community generated PM peak hour trips being added to Shipley Road.

a.)  The Unified Development Code and DelDOT assess traffic via the performance of a traffic impact study. Project generated traffic is added to existing traffic and traffic generated from other committed developments which are approved but yet to be developed. This defines a scenario of total future traffic. Intersections within the study area are then assessed for adequacy based on average vehicle delay. During the Traffic Impact Study process, DelDOT reviews the study and ultimately provides a final approval once they concur with the results and recommended improvements. For more information, see “Traffic Section” here.

School capacity is regulated by the Unified Development Code and State law. When a new residential development project is submitted to New Castle County, the developer is required to obtain from the applicable school district (in the case of this project, the Brandywine School District) a certification that there is sufficient capacity for the number of children anticipated to be generated by the community (age-restricted units are excluded from this). The school districts and the Delaware Department of Education create the formula by which the community’s impacts are judged.

Using this formula, there can be one of two results. Either the District concludes that there is going to be sufficient capacity to accommodate the students anticipated to be generated by the project, in which case a letter is issued to advise the developer that capacity exists. Alternatively, the District can conclude that there will not be sufficient capacity for the anticipated student load. If there is insufficient capacity anticipated, the developer will be required to enter into a Voluntary School Assessment Agreement (“VSAA”) with the Department of Education requiring the developer to pay a fee for each certificate of occupancy to be issued for each non-age restricted unit in the community. The fee does not depend on whether the unit will have school-aged children living in it, only that it could have school-age children living in it.

Looking at the Brandywine School District, and using the recently approved and under construction Concord Plaza project as an example, there currently exists no capacity for additional school children in the District, regardless of the size of the community.  For Concord Plaza, the VSAA requires a payment of $6,957.00 per constructed unit.

The site capacity for the Brandywine Country Club property under the existing zoning would allow for a community of 174 homes (using permitted density bonuses) and, thus, a VSAA fee of $1,210,518.  The current proposal of 368 dwelling units (excluding the 130 age-restricted units), on the other hand, would generate a total VSAA fee of $2,560,176 for the project.  This results in the current proposal generating additional VSAA funds totaling $1,349,658.

The other part of this analysis is the number of children anticipated to be generated by the community.  The State uses a number that equates to .5 children per non-age-restricted dwelling unit.  This number is the same, regardless of the size of the home or whether it is detached, attached or an apartment.  The only unit type that is excluded is one that is age restricted.  Under these metrics, a “by-right” development would be anticipated to generate 87 school children (.5 times 174).  Using the same metric, the current proposal would be anticipated to generate 184 school children (368 x .5).  In reality, however, it is anticipated that the pending proposal would generate far fewer than 184 children.

The proposed project currently contains 56 non-age-restricted homes (both detached and attached), which, using the District’s multiplier of .5 students per home, results in 28 school children.  The remaining dwelling units consist of a mix of one (30%), two (60%) and three (10%) bedroom apartments.  While it can be assumed that the one bedroom apartments will not generate school aged children, those units are nevertheless required to be included as units that could generate school children under the VSAA process.

In reality, however, apartments generate far fewer school children than single family homes.  Indeed, a 2005 study from the Urban Land Institute found that new garden apartments generate, on average, .21 school aged children per unit, while new mid to high rise apartments generate .19 children per unit.  Taking the average of these numbers (.2), and multiplying against the 312 non-age restricted apartments (including the one bedrooms) results in an anticipated student yield of 62 students for a total anticipated student yield of 90 students (or three more than a by-right development).   Despite generating only three more students, however, the project would be required to pay an additional $1,349,658 in VSAA funds to the Brandywine School District.

A survey of a number of Capano apartment communities reveals that the school impact is less than that seen in national averages, with a range from .8% to 12% of the units within those communities generating school children.  Applying even the largest percentage (12%) to the apartments proposed for the Brandywine Country Club redevelopment, one finds that this community would generate fewer school children than a by-right community of single family homes under the existing zoning classification.   Nevertheless, the VSAA contribution would remain $1,349,658 higher than that required for a community under the existing zoning requirements while generating less school children than the same by-right development.