Protect Bancroft Parkway
NO REZONING FOR TOWERS ON BANCROFT PARKWAY!
NO REZONING FOR TOWERS ON BANCROFT PARKWAY!
Tsionas Management has applied to rezone three parcels at Bancroft Parkway and W. 11th Street from C-1 to C-2 in order to build a large mixed-use apartment building. The building shown in renderings is 9 stories tall. The site is currently a surface parking lot and small commercial property.
This isn't just about one building. It's about what the zoning permanently allows on that land.
Current C-1 zoning: max 3 stories / 47 feet
Requested C-2 zoning: max 15 stories / 180 feet
Unless a binding height cap is written into the approval as an explicit condition, the developer (or any future owner) could legally build up to 15 stories on this site.
Height could be uncapped. The developer is showing 9 stories, but C-2 zoning legally allows up to 180 feet. Without a hard condition locking in that limit, the rezoning approval is a blank check on height.
C-2 doesn't fit this street. The city's own code describes C-2 districts as intended for "main highways" serving large segments of the city. Bancroft Parkway is a residential parkway. There are currently no C-2 zoned properties along Bancroft Parkway other than the library. This would be the first.
Traffic impact is a real concern. The project includes a proposed one-way conversion of W. 11th Street and will route additional traffic onto Bancroft Parkway -- a corridor where speeding is already an issue. Any traffic study should be independently reviewed, with findings made public before a vote.
Many neighbors weren't notified. Official notification only covers property owners within a certain distance of the site. Residents directly across the parkway fell outside that threshold and only learned of the proposal through the Wawaset Park Association.
Reach out our City Council voicing your opposition --
Raise Awareness --
News Article – Delaware Online: Residents push back on 9-story apartment plan for Bancroft Parkway (link)
The building would have 200 one- and two-bedroom units, an underground parking garage with 352 spaces, a rooftop deck with a pool and a ground-floor coffee shop.