Delaware General Assembly

Senate Housing & Land Use 5/11/26

Awaiting consideration in Committee

SB 23

5/11/26

Huxtable

Rep. K. Johnson

Sen. Lockman, Sokola, Townsend
Reps. Berry, Morrison

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9, TITLE 22, AND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HOUSING SUPPLY AND HOUSING AFFORDABILITY.

This Act aims to increase this State’s supply of housing. Despite rapid development, Delaware is facing a significant and growing shortage of affordable housing. Senate Joint Resolution No. 8 of the 1st session of the 153rd General Assembly created a pilot program designed to encourage local zoning reform efforts that would help increase affordable housing. While several local jurisdictions have taken advantage of the assistance offered by Senate Joint Resolution 8, the scope of the problem is statewide, and it will take more than isolated local reform to scale up housing production, particularly affordable housing production, to the degree necessary to meet this State’s needs. This Act seeks to address those needs by increasing access to housing for all income levels while allowing local jurisdictions the flexibility to develop their own strategies for doing so. This Act is a Substitute for Senate Bill No. 23 and differs from Senate Bill No. 23 as follows: (1) Senate Bill No. 23 gave the comprehensive plans for New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County the force of law, as is the case with the comprehensive plans in municipalities. This Substitute removes this provision for all 3 counties, so that only the land use map or map series part of the county comprehensive plan have the force of law, as is currently the case. (2) Like Senate Bill No. 23, this Substitute reduces the amount of time a County has to rezone to conform land use with its comprehensive plan from 18 to 12 months. This Substitute also adds a provision that if a County does not complete this rezoning within the 12 months, and a property owner makes, within 24 months of the adoption of the comprehensive plan, a rezoning request that is consistent with the comprehensive plan’s future land use map, the rezoning request must be approved within 90 days of delivery of the rezoning application. If more than 24 months have passed since the adoption of the comprehensive plan, this provision does not apply. However, during that 24-month period, as long as a public hearing was held in connection with the comprehensive plan, all hearing and notice requirements otherwise required for zoning and rezoning will be deemed to have been met. (3) Under Senate Bill No. 23, counties and municipalities were given 20 days to complete revisions to comprehensive plans that were returned by the Governor for further revision. This Substitute increases that period to 45 days. It also clarifies and provides additional detail regarding the revision and certification process. (4) The requirements for the affordable housing plan under newly created Subchapter III of Chapter 92 of Title 29 have been reduced to reflect the fact that local jurisdictions already include some of the information required under Senate Bill No. 23 in their comprehensive plans. (5) Senate Bill 23 required a minimum of 4 mandatory elements of an affordable housing plan. This Substitute increases the number of required elements of the affordable housing plan from 4 to 5, with the addition being that an affordable housing plan for a jurisdiction with greater than 10,000 population must include the identification of 1 or more zoning designations that allow and are suitable for residential uses where emergency shelters, group homes, recovery homes, or other supportive housing are allowed as a permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary permit required. (6) This Substitute clarifies the conditions under which discretionary reviews of residential development applications are replaced with a by-right process. Specifically, this Substitute provides that if a residential development application conforms without conditions, variances, or exceptions with the zoning requirements of the local jurisdiction and the comprehensive plan, by-right approval applies. Under the by-right process, the local jurisdiction determines whether to hold a public meeting about the application. The local jurisdiction’s determination to hold or not hold a public meeting and the procedures of any public meeting held supersede the provision of 9 Del. C. §§4811, 6811 and 6812, regarding public hearings. (7) This Substitute removes some of the reporting requirements included in Senate Bill 23 to simplify the process for local jurisdictions. Reporting is still mandatory, and the Delaware State Housing Authority and the Office of State Planning Coordination are still required to publish reported information on the Housing Authority website on an annual basis so that the public can see how local jurisdictions are meeting their obligations under this Act. (8) Senate Bill No. 23 included technical corrections intended to make current code consistent with the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute removes those technical corrections to avoid confusion over which changes were technical, and which were substantive. Under § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution, this Act requires a two-thirds majority vote because the amendments it makes to Title 22 of the Delaware Code would indirectly amend the charter of one or more incorporated municipalities.

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