Conference explores Delaware’s quality of life

Delaware’s rapid population growth and the related pressures on infrastructure and open space in the state were among the topics addressed in a University-hosted conference that drew more than 350 participants.

The daylong conference, held in March on UD’s Newark campus with video links to the Carvel Research and Education Center in Georgetown, was the latest in the “Creating Knowledge-Based Partnerships” series. The series resumes Oct. 2 with a conference focusing on education in Delaware.

At the March event, “Creating a Livable Delaware: Pathways for Enhancing Prosperity and Quality of Life,” speakers and panelists addressed the challenges facing the state in light of its burgeoning population.

Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who has put forward a Livable Delaware agenda for the state, addressed the conference, saying the population, which grew by 20 percent from 1990-2000, now stands at 780,000 and is expected to grow to more than 1 million by 2030.

“We need to be prepared to meet the challenges of a growing population by guiding growth to the areas that are best suited for growth,” she said. Her Livable Delaware initiative, in collaboration with the General Assembly, aims to direct growth to the best-prepared areas, preserve farmland and open space, promote redevelopment, facilitate affordable housing and limit sprawl.

Keynote speaker William B. Chandler III, AS ’73, chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, said the state’s favorable geography, industrious people and “extreme livability” are some of the causes of the problems that Delaware faces today.

“The Delaware I was born into had a population of just slightly over 300,000 people: More than 100,000 in Wilmington, around 100,000 in the rest of New Castle [County] and less than 100,000 in all of Kent and Sussex counties combined,” Chandler, who grew up and still lives in Dagsboro, Del., said. “The population of the three counties today...is quickly approaching 800,000, a near threefold increase in my lifetime alone. A state cannot experience such dramatic growth in such a short period of time without feeling some growing pains.”

He said the growing demand for housing by an influx of retirees and “tax refugees” from other states has transformed Sussex County by raising the average cost of a house to $260,000 while the local annual income averages only $30,000. As a result, he said, middle-class families that once owned homes in Rehoboth Beach and Lewes can no longer afford them, and traditional waterfront communities have been uprooted.

Quoting L.P. Hartley, author of The Go Between, who wrote that “the past is a foreign country,” Chandler said: “The Delaware I grew up in is a foreign country to today’s world of urban planning, skyrocketing property values and conferences like this one, where strategies to manage growth and to preserve our cultural heritage are challenges to be addressed.”

He said the driving force behind Delaware’s “breakneck” pace of development was a combination of several factors, among them the state’s attractive aesthetic qualities, low property taxes and a transfer tax system that benefits local governments that also have the authority to approve development.
Chandler suggested such remedies as continued efforts by the state to purchase and preserve open space, the purchase of development rights, zoning restrictions, a moratorium on new developments and a reassessment of property values.

In a panel discussion after the speech, Thomas Morr, president of Select Philadelphia, pointed out that quality of life for employees is important in attracting companies to a state or region. Several panelists noted that economic recession could provide a type of natural moratorium on development, even without government-imposed limits on growth.

The conference was cosponsored by the Office of the Governor, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, the Delaware Public Policy Institute, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College, First State Innovation, Select Greater Philadelphia, Nemours Health and Prevention Services and The News Journal.

New UD office to strengthen partnerships and innovation

During the conference, University President Patrick Harker announced that David Weir, director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, has been named director of the new UD Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships.
The office, which opened July 1, will encourage and enable innovation and entrepreneurship; grow, utilize and leverage UD’s knowledge-based assets; and create and capture new economic and community benefits.

“The office will strengthen our participation as a partner in the economic development of the state and the region, coordinate the University’s economic development activities and also serve as a point of contact for those in the public and private sectors who are seeking access to the University’s expertise, programs and services,” Harker said.

“A chief goal is to support more rapid commercialization of the University’s knowledge resources and technology and to strengthen partnerships that enhance economic prosperity and quality of life.”

Since 1998, Weir has served as the founding director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, a partnership involving state government, academic institutions and the private sector. The search for a new director of the institute is under way.