Shupe’s bill requiring developers pave roads, passed committee unanimously

This bill will put a stop to taxpayers supplementing developer responsibilities

In addition to residents in our district, homeowners and renters across the state of Delaware have been left with unfinished roads after they purchase or rent a home in a development. The cause is DELDOT’s inside roads bond codes only require developers to commit 10-15% of the paving cost, instead of 100% like several municipalities require. This means that if road paving is estimated to cost $200,000, developers are only required by the State to commit $20,000 to $30,000 to begin building and selling houses, apartments, and townhouses in that neighborhood.

In many cases the developers decide to leave the roads unpaved, taking the loss on bond committment so they do not have to pay the 90%-85% for the finished work. The reality is the roads do not get paved and taxpayers end up paying for paving the roads that are the responsibility of the developer.

The blame resides just as much on the State of Delaware for allowing these laws to continue that drain taxpayer money in favor of developers. I have asked DELDOT to change these codes for years and to the credit of the workers, they agree and have brought it to the attention of the directors. The directors need to move on this and protect taxpayer money from these expenses while requiring that homeowners that purchase property in Delaware receive quality roads by the developers of their communities.

HB 297 Requires 1.) 100% committment of bond for inside road paving; 2.) Not allow developers that fail to pave roads the ability to develop more communities in Delaware in the future.

Let’s stop taxpayer money going to fund neighborhoods that are the responsibility of the developers.

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