As part of the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) pilot program to increase housing supply by reforming local zoning ordinances and land-use policies, Smart Growth America (SGA)’s Center for Zoning Solutions is leading technical assistance engagements in four towns: Bridgeville, Milford, Georgetown, and Rehoboth Beach. To support this work, SGA spent a week leading community engagement at Rehoboth Beach alongside city staff and our partners at Dover, Kohl & Partners. Two takeaways stood out: workforce housing is affordable housing, and increasing housing affordability is as important as improving transit.

Even though Rehoboth Beach has less than 2,000 year-round residents—the smallest population of the four municipalities—it’s not immune to the nationwide affordable housing crisis. The beach town faces an extreme lack of affordable housing, especially for seasonal employees. Along with limited transit options and low-density development across the county, Rehoboth also has an aging population, especially as more retirees moved to the town after the pandemic.

A charrette for community feedback

The City of Rehoboth Beach and urban design firm Dover, Kohl & Partners organized a design charrette—a short, focused planning session—devoted to reforming the commercial district’s zoning regulations and encouraging more mixed-use development. SGA joined this weeklong effort in July, focusing our engagement on the four zoning solutions the city had already identified as priorities in its application to the DSHA program:

• Allowing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and missing middle housing types as a permitted use in residential zones
• Increasing building heights for multifamily housing and mixed-use developments
• Establishing an inclusionary zoning program to address affordable and workforce housing needs
• Enabling higher density, mixed-use with residential in commercial zones or employment centers

Four ways we captured community input

SGA spoke with more than 85 residents during the formal charrette sessions at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center over the course of the week. Beyond the core charrette sessions, SGA—with support from public engagement consultant Dr. Cymone Davis—also sought feedback from the greater Rehoboth Beach population through four additional strategies:

• Focus groups: Hosted focus groups with Dover, Kohl & Partners and city staff to share the goals of the DSHA pilot program and gather resident insight on housing affordability locally
• Survey pop-ups: Visited and traveled to 11 locations across town to conduct a pop-up survey and on-site interviews
• Charrette station: Tabled in the charrette studio area to welcome visitors and share the week’s housing goals
• Structured 1:1 interviews: Scheduled interviews with residents, business owners, seasonal workers, and city staff

SGA designed these additional engagement opportunities to ensure that we reached a representative portion of the community beyond regular attendees of public meetings, who often include residents with the time and resources to remain closely engaged in local zoning debates. By the end of the week, 112 people had responded to the survey, and the team had conducted seven direct interviews with J-1 visa holders, seasonal and commercial workers, and local business owners.

Here's some of the anonymized feedback we heard through the survey:

• “It is impossible to move to Rehoboth Beach for work in Rehoboth Beach and be able to afford to live in the city limits.”
• “Workforce housing should meet neighborhood character and the building rules consistent with other housing options. The standards may differ, but should be compatible.”
• “I think we should leverage options like apartments above existing retail and well-managed ADU permissions to allow more reasonable housing without sacrificing the character and peace of the neighborhoods. Rehoboth used to have tons of ADUs, and I feel they were zoned away, but not sure why or if that was helpful. Seems like getting them back could be useful but in a well-thought-out, managed way.”

Through these activities in the community, SGA gained a clearer picture of the different challenges, political dynamics, and potential opportunities for housing reform at Rehoboth Beach. Those public engagement activities also helped connect efforts to revitalize the commercial district with zoning reforms for workforce housing.

How community input will guide zoning reform going forward

This engagement was our first for the DSHA Zoning and Land Use Reform pilot program. It provided key lessons to carry into engagement efforts with the remaining three municipalities:

1. Diverse engagement strategies are essential for capturing the full scope of community needs

2. Affordable housing is context-sensitive, and communication on zoning reform must depend on local socio-political dynamics

3. Common ground opens the lines of communication and is an effective strategy for identifying the right housing typology, in the right place, and at the right price

The week concluded with Dover, Kohl & Partners’ presentation at a town commissioners meeting, which included findings from SGA’s additional engagement with an audience truly representative of Rehoboth Beach.

Additional resources

Click here to learn more about the week’s outcomes

Learn more about the Delaware State Housing Authority

Watch Charrette week recap video: Tedder Talks #18: Charrette Week