Smart Growth & Zoning Reform

We Hear You

Across Delaware, residents are raising the same concerns: traffic keeps getting worse, infrastructure isn't keeping up, communities are losing their character, and many people feel development decisions are being made before their concerns are meaningfully addressed. Government has approved growth faster than it has planned for it. It's time to slow down, modernize our planning, and get it right.

Our Vision

The Independent Party of Delaware believes Delaware deserves time to plan before approving the next generation of growth. We support modernizing zoning laws, strengthening long-term planning, and ensuring roads, schools, utilities, emergency services, environmental stewardship, and quality of life keep pace with development. 

The Right Planning. The Right Place. The Right Time.

Empowering Delawareans

The Independent Party of Delaware supports pursuing constitutional reforms to authorize statewide and county-level citizen referendums on qualifying issues of significant public importance, giving Delawareans a direct voice in major decisions that shape their communities and their future. This authority could include major development projects, significant land-use changes, or other issues meeting objective criteria established by law. We believe representative government works best when citizens have meaningful opportunities to participate directly in decisions with lasting consequences. Major decisions should not only satisfy legal requirements—they should also earn the confidence of the people they affect. 

Preserving Delaware's Natural Heritage

Growth should enhance Delaware's communities—not erase the natural beauty that makes them special.

The Independent Party of Delaware supports policies that:
• Preserve and expand meaningful green space in new developments.
• Preserve mature trees whenever practical.
• Encourage developers to incorporate existing woodlands into site design rather than clear-cutting properties.
• Promote native trees, shrubs, and plants instead of invasive species.
• Encourage natural landscaping that reduces unnecessary expanses of high-maintenance turf grass while supporting native plants and wildlife.
• Encourage backyard wildlife habitat and pollinator-friendly landscapes as a matter of public policy.

By planning with nature instead of against it, we can create neighborhoods that are healthier, more beautiful, less costly to maintain, and more resilient for future generations.

Our Seven Principles

1. Modernize outdated zoning laws.
2. Put the right development in the right place.
3. Infrastructure before major approvals.
4. Preserve Delaware's Natural Heritage.
5. Build safer, stronger communities.
6. Transparency, accountability, and meaningful public input.
7. Pause. Plan. Proceed.

Our Guiding Question

Will this make life better for the people who already live here?