Riemann: Let’s have honest conversation about SB 23 | Bay to Bay News

baytobaynews.com · September 7, 2026

Riemann: Let’s have honest conversation about SB 23 | Bay to Bay News

# Riemann: Let’s have honest conversation about SB 23

Posted Monday, September 7, 2026 11:45 am

As Senate Bill 23 is debated in the media, reasonable people can disagree about public policy. But some recent characterizations simply do not reflect what the law actually does.”

By J. Michael Riemann

The following was written by J. Michael Riemann of Dover on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Delaware, the Kent Sussex Leadership Alliance, the Sussex Economic Development Action Committee, the Delaware Business Roundtable, the Delaware Black Chamber of Commerce, NeighborGood Partners, Housing Alliance Delaware, the American Council of Engineering Companies, the Delaware Contractors Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, the Todmorden Foundation, HDC MidAtlantic, Luther Towers of Dover, Luther Village of Dover and the Ability Network of Delaware.

The Housing for Every Delawarean Act earned support from an unusually broad coalition of Delaware organizations representing employers, healthcare, education, older adults, chambers of commerce, builders, engineers, contractors and the broader business community. These groups do not agree on every issue, but they came together on this one because Delaware’s housing challenge has become too significant to ignore and too important to allow the status quo to continue.

As Senate Bill 23 is debated in the media, reasonable people can disagree about public policy. But some recent characterizations simply do not reflect what the law actually does.

The state is not taking over local zoning. Local governments will continue to prepare their comprehensive plans, establish future land use maps, adopt zoning districts and determine where different types and intensities of development are appropriate. SB 23 does not override those policy decisions. It simply requires communities to plan for housing and better align their zoning with the plans they adopt.

It is also a misconception that the state has no role in land use. Delaware has long operated through a state and local partnership. Local governments exercise zoning authority, while the state reviews and certifies comprehensive plans and invests billions of taxpayer dollars in roads, schools, infrastructure, preservation and services. Coordinating those responsibilities is simply good planning.

The discussion about public hearings needs context. Land use is a multistep process, and not every application starts at the same point. Public hearings remain essential when communities establish policy through comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, rezonings, conditional uses, special exceptions and variances.

SB 23 addresses something different: a residential application that is already a permitted use and complies with all objective requirements of the code. At that point, the question is no longer what the policy should be; it is whether the applicant followed the rules already established with public input. Public meetings and written comments remain available, while providing a more objective and predictable review process. Many jurisdictions, including all three counties, already use administrative and business meeting processes without individual public hearings for many code-compliant commercial and multifamily applications. Applying that principle to qualifying residential applications is hardly radical.

More importantly, we should remember why reform is necessary. Delaware is growing, and that growth requires housing. The better question is not whether Delaware will grow but how and where we want that growth to occur. Growth cannot be addressed on an ad hoc basis.

For years, Delaware communities have developed comprehensive plans intended to answer that question. But, when zoning and implementation fail to follow those plans, growth does not disappear. Instead, we risk the very outcomes we want to avoid: scattered development, stretched infrastructure, pressure on open space and continued sprawl.

SB 23 attempts to close that gap. Based on the recommendations of Delaware’s Affordable Housing Production Task Force, it asks local governments to plan for housing, provides a toolkit with flexibility in how they do so, better aligns zoning with adopted plans and creates greater predictability for projects that follow the rules.

The real issue is people. For the business community, this is ultimately about whether our children can afford to stay in Delaware, whether older adults can remain in the communities they helped build, whether individuals with varying abilities have housing choices that meet their needs and whether teachers, nurses, first responders, tradespeople, retail workers and the people who serve coffee every morning can afford to live in the communities they serve. These are our employees, customers, neighbors, friends and families. They are the people who make Delaware work. We owe it to them to move beyond the politics of growth and create more opportunities for Delawareans to call this state home. For these reasons, we supported SB 23 and continue to support it.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.

Post Office Box 538 Dover, DE 19903-0538

888-665-3848

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