Georgetown's town council voted 3-1 Monday night to repeal the cottage housing ordinance that let builders put up to 12 small homes on an acre, ending the Sussex County seat's experiment with tiny-home neighborhoods less than a year after it started (via Spotlight Delaware).
Mayor Angie Townsend and council members Penuel Barrett and Michael Briggs voted for repeal at the Nov. 9 meeting. Councilman Tony Neal voted no, arguing that the town's need for affordable housing outweighed residents' worries. Councilwoman Christina Diaz-Malone was absent. WGMD and CoastTV also reported the 3-1 final vote on Ordinance 2026-06, and CoastTV said the repeal removes cottage housing as a permitted use in the town's UR1 Urban Residential district.
Hello Contractor reported on Nov. 2 that the vote was coming and that Springboard Delaware, which runs the town's pallet village transitional shelter, had sued over a summer pause that froze its 122-cottage plan. Monday's vote doesn't end that fight.
Springboard wants to build those cottages on a 14-acre property near Sussex Academy. With the ordinance gone, the plan has no path forward under town code unless the court steps in. The group's suit, filed in the Court of Chancery on Sept. 11, argues it had started the application process before the council stopped taking new cottage applications in July and should be reviewed under the old rules. CoastTV reported that Springboard is asking the court to throw out two council actions and make the town process its preliminary application, not to grant final approval. The town denies wrongdoing and says the pause was a temporary administrative step taken before Springboard had filed a preliminary application. The case is still pending, and Springboard executive director Judson Malone didn't respond to Spotlight Delaware's request for comment.
One cottage project survives. Little Living's 20-home development on East Market Street, approved in February, isn't affected by the repeal. Director George Meringolo told Spotlight Delaware he expects town permits in the coming weeks and construction to be finished by August 2027. He called the repeal "not a wise thing" for Georgetown and pushed back on how the project has been described. "This is not a homelessness project. This is not a transient community," he said, adding that most applicants are "semi-professional people."
More than a dozen residents spoke Monday, many of them in favor of repeal, according to WGMD. Neighbors of the Springboard site said the project would hurt property values. Barrett was blunt. "Georgetown is the guinea pig of disasters, as I call it," he said, according to Spotlight Delaware. "I don't think tiny homes belong in Georgetown at all."
The state's housing agency had asked the town to keep the rule. In an Oct. 9 letter, Housing Delaware director Matt Heckles wrote that the ordinance gave Georgetown "an established pathway for additional housing choices" and lined up with the goals of Senate Bill 23, and he offered help with "targeted refinements" instead of repeal. SB 23, the Housing for Every Delawarean Act that the General Assembly passed this summer, is designed to have towns of more than 2,000 people add an affordable housing plan to their comprehensive plans, raise residential density and pick from a list of measures, with a goal of 20% affordable housing.
Townsend said she plans to appoint an ad-hoc housing committee in December to draft a plan that reflects what residents want to see in their town. The same night, the council held a first reading on a future land use map amendment covering 74 parcels, which will come back for a second reading at a later meeting, WGMD reported.
Why it matters for Contractors
For builders who were eyeing cottage work in Georgetown, the door is closed for now, unless the Chancery Court sides with Springboard. If you're already under contract on Little Living's East Market Street project, that job is still moving, with permits expected soon and a finish target of August 2027.
The bigger lesson is the one the lawsuit is testing: a zoning tool can disappear within a single election cycle, and projects that aren't far enough along when it does may be stuck. If you're planning small-lot or cottage work anywhere, get your land, entity and a complete application filed early. And watch the mayor's housing committee, since towns Georgetown's size are expected to write affordable housing plans under SB 23, and that's where the next set of rules for small-home builders will come from.