DelawareHS 1 for HB 450153rd General Assembly (2024–2026)HouseWALLET

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9, TITLE 17, TITLE 22, AND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LAND USE.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

8 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 3 costs, 1 mixed.

State expands technology for safer roads

The transportation department must deploy, operate, and maintain technology to monitor and manage roads and traffic. It must also keep operating the Delaware Public Crash Database. For engineering studies and traffic investigations, it can use continuous data collection, remote sensing, digital images, and computer analysis. These tools can examine road safety, traffic flow, and infrastructure conditions; the law sets no funding amount for this work.

Developers get new traffic study thresholds

State and local traffic-study rules use peak-hour trips instead of daily trips. For development accessing state highways, the thresholds are 500 peak-hour residential trips or 500 nonresidential trips, excluding pass-by trips. County rules use 500 residential trips and 500 trips excluding pass-by traffic for Kent's other development or Sussex and New Castle's commercial development. Municipal thresholds must be at least 500 residential trips or 500 commercial trips, excluding commercial pass-by trips. Covered land-use changes, developments, and new access in Downtown Development Districts or Downtown Development Corridors are exempt from these studies.

Fee relief and roadwork delivery choices

Developers get credit against transportation impact fees for off-site improvements required through a state-required traffic study. The transportation secretary must waive or reduce fees for residential development financed partly or fully by the Delaware State Housing Authority. The law sets no fixed reduction and does not require savings to reach a particular household. Applicants can directly plan, design, inspect, and build required off-site improvements, with contracted quality checks. For eligible applicants who pay an impact fee, the transportation department may instead deliver the work as a state project funded through those fees.

Growth areas must allow denser housing

Counties and municipalities must allow varied housing in growth areas, including townhouses, apartments, multifamily homes, and mixed-use housing. Local size, layout, and design rules must reasonably accommodate these homes and encourage compact, walkable, transit-supportive development. Growth areas must appear in local comprehensive plans and match State Investment Levels 1 and 2, or successor classifications. Density rules are due by June 1, 2027, or with a comprehensive plan due that year, and updated at least every 10 years. State housing guidance starts at 4 single-family homes per acre, with higher minimums for other housing types and varied densities allowed across growth areas. Local governments must work with the specified state and local officials and issue implementing rules when comprehensive plans are approved.

Counties must coordinate development traffic reviews

Each county must establish a traffic-analysis agreement with the transportation department by June 30, 2027. The county must approve it by resolution or ordinance. Agreements cover zoning applications, new road access tied to development, and other covered approvals before county decisions. Reviews must check whether approval creates new state costs or infrastructure duties inconsistent with State growth policy. They must use nationally recognized criteria, consider existing and projected traffic, and set a traffic-service standard acceptable to both parties.

Developers pay required road improvement costs

Developers remain responsible for road work directly serving their sites, including required auxiliary lanes. The transportation department can require entrance or frontage changes for safety, with the developer paying. Added payments apply when a traffic study requires off-site work beyond site access and auxiliary lanes. If those costs exceed the transportation impact fee, the developer pays the department the difference. The covered costs include design, construction, land rights, and the traffic study.

Higher development surcharge funds community programs

The law raises the surcharge on transportation impact fees from 1% to 2% of the fee due. Developments that owe the fee also pay this surcharge. The transportation department sends collections quarterly to the Office of Management and Budget. At the Governor's direction, the money is divided among farmland preservation, open space, coastal resilience, walking and biking paths, and brownfields programs.

New development fees with growth limits

By January 1, 2027, Delaware's transportation department must establish county-based transportation impact fees for new development that adds vehicle trips. The fees apply inside and outside designated growth areas, but exclude established local or regional Transportation Improvement Districts. Fees are due before a building permit and must match the development's fair share of transportation costs. Fees outside growth areas may be higher to encourage growth in state-designated areas. Fee increases cannot exceed the consumer price index increase plus 2%. The department must publish its fee formula and review it every 5 years. Collections go into the Transportation Impact Fee Fund, generally for work in the same county, with municipal consultation. Money can cover related planning, construction, land rights, and administration to bring transportation infrastructure up to State standards. If a locality lacks required traffic-study and density rules by June 1, 2027, the department decides how to use its collections.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

William Bush
Democratic • House

Cosponsors

Alonna Berry
Democratic • House
Krista Griffith
Democratic • House
Stephanie L. Hansen
Democratic • Senate
Kerri Evelyn Harris
Democratic • House
Jeff Hilovsky
Republican • House
Kyra L. Hoffner
Democratic • Senate
Kendra Johnson
Democratic • House
S. Elizabeth Lockman
Democratic • Senate
Michael F. Smith
Republican • House
Eric Morrison
Democratic • House
DeShanna U Neal
Democratic • House
Edward S. Osienski
Democratic • House
Sophie Phillips
Democratic • House
Nicole Poore
Democratic • Senate
Ray Seigfried
Democratic • Senate
Claire Snyder-Hall
Democratic • House
Bryan Townsend
Democratic • Senate
John "Jack" Walsh
Democratic • Senate
Madinah Wilson-Anton
Democratic • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 60 • No: 1

Senate vote • 6/30/2026

Passed (2/3 required)

Yes: 21 • No: 0

House vote • 6/18/2026