674 more houses will be built north of Middletown

Hundreds more houses will soon arrive in the fast-growing stretches of land north of Middletown and south of the canal – where new houses arrive so quickly they often seem to have fallen from the sky onto a single endless lawn.

In a largely ceremonial vote July 9, the New Castle Count Council approved a new 674-home development called Monarch, just southwest of the Town of Whitehall, on land slated for development for more than a decade.

The new housing development will be built on a 546-acre plot that straddles Ratledge Road, bordering Crystal Run on the south and with a northern boundary at Lorewood Grove Road.

The land is owned by multiple limited liability companies associated with Sussex County's Preston and Christopher Schell, principals of developer Ocean Atlantic Cos and builder Schell Brothers .

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Monarch development will join Middletown housing boom – but is the boom slowing?

Monarch is hardly the only new development approved in southern New Castle County this year.

Developer Blenheim Homes got approval this spring for a series of projects totaling about 500 new homes as part of the planned Bayberry Community a few miles south of Monarch. Those projects, named the Overlook at Bayberry, Bayberry Town Center and the Grove at Bayberry, will join the 1,700 homes Blenheim has already built there over the past couple of decades.

But those plans will be the final puzzle piece for Bayberry, developer Jay Sonecha told the County Council this spring. And Monarch's plans may signal that developers are becoming more careful about what they build in the Middletown area.

More: Bayberry may finally get a supermarket, 145 new homes and maybe a fitness center

Originally planned as part of the dense and walkable community of Whitehall, Monarch's land had previously been approved for more than 1,800 residences more than a decade ago , according to county records.In a Land Use Committee presentation earlier this month, Monarch's real estate lawyer, Shawn Tucker, noted that the new plans would feature only about a third as many homes previously planned on the site.

The developer was reluctant to proceed with the more dense housing plans, Tucker said, because the plan called for "rear-loading homes" his client felt were less favored in the current housing market.

So what's a rear-loading home? It's a home with a garage accessed through an alley behind the home rather than by the front entrance – an innovation that allows more homes to be packed into a narrower space. But according to Tucker, his client believes such homes are more difficult to sell in the current market.

"I know some folks are selling it," Tucker said. "I can tell you, I've talked to other folks besides my client who are reluctant to get into that market and have concerns. Others are not reluctant at all."

Monarch housing development plans had been delayed by the pandemic

The new plans for the Monarch development have been winding toward land-use approval since 2020, when development was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Tucker said.

The new plans call for a housing density of less than one home an acre, when accounting for more than 300 acres of open space and stormwater drainage. All homes would be detached, single-family homes. No homes would be age-restricted or designated as affordable housing, Tucker said in the Land Use Committee meeting July 2.

The developer would pay about $800,000 in impact fees and $6 million in school assessments.

After minimal discussion and no public objections, the County Council unanimously approved the 674-home Monarch development at the County Council meeting on July 9.

Matthew Korfhage is business and development reporter in the Delaware region covering all things related to land and money: openings and closings, construction, and the many corporations who call the First State home. Send tips and insults to mkorfhage@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: 674 more houses will be built north of Middletown