A 'New Urbanism' village by the Delaware, rescaled

UPDATE with comments by Cartier at end/ Back in the mid-2000s, after a lot of meetings, New Castle County approved a plan to demolish the aging Brookview housing development (where President Biden lived briefly after World War II, and where a lot of Latino immigrant workers and families had lately been living) on 100+ acres, to make way for Darley Green, a state- and county-taxpayer-aided project to bulid more than 1,200 new market-rate townhomes, including a small percentage of low-income (in Delaware they call it "workforce") housing, and 40,000 sq. ft. of curbside stores and offices, in a "walkable" village center under the principals of the don't-need-a-car "New Urbanism" ideals, all just up the hill from the Claymont Septa rail station and bus stops and the junction of I-95 and I-495 at the Pa. state line.

Then came the 2008 recession. The developer, Don Robitzer's Commonwealth Group, struggled on, building houses a quarter-block at a time, about 120 in all so far. In 2012 Commonwealth yielded part of the property in a "friendly foreclosure" to Delaware developer LC Homes (Louis Capano 3d), who has since drafted a new plan to replace most of the unbuilt stores and homes with several hundred market-rate apartments. Work continues by Montchanin Buiders on the townhomes.

The revised plan won quick county approval under the sponsorshiop of current Coucnilman John Cartier, a Democrat, but has since been criticized by Councilman Bob Weiner, a Republican, who used to represent the district before boundaries shifted, and who wrote the original ordinance.

The idea was to create a "walkable mixed use village" where residents "are not hostages to their cars," Weiner noted in a presentation he has sent residents. The plan Cartier has supported has "gutted" and "eviscerated" the community-supported plan, makes no provision for "workforce" housing, and has left all the "precedent-setting public investments" in the service of just another car-dependent suburban apartment project, like the one demolished to make way for the village in teh first place, only limited to more "upscale" residents.

"I deeply resent the interference and barrage of criticisms," Cartier shot back in a note to his fellow council members. "Even with the reduction, the Darley Green commercial district along the Philadelphia Pike (US 13) will be graced with four new attractive 2.4 story mixed-use buidlings with cafe sidewalks to promote wlkability and sociability." Better than the "ugly appearance of the demolition site," replacing the "eyesores" with new apartments, at least, Cartier said. And, he noted, Weiner voted for the revised plan.

UPDATE: Cartier adds: Weiner is "incorrect" about the scale of the cuts to retail on the property. Under the current county-approved plan: "The 9,000 square feet he references is for the first building alone. The total was cut down from 52,000 square feet to 36,000 square feet.... There will still be retail on the Philadelphia Pike."