Mayor & Council

Council Meeting Council Chamber, Smyrna Town Hall 27 S. Market Street Plaza, Smyrna, Delaware October 20, 2025 – 7:00 PM Agenda 1. 7:00 PM – Call to order of the regular meeting The meeting was called to order by Mayor Gott at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance There was a moment of silence after the Pledge. 3. Roll Call All were present except Councilmen Johnson and Olson. 4. Additions/deletions to the published agenda Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur noted that 8a should read as Resolution 009-25. Councilman Drew motioned to amend the name. Councilman Miles seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. 5. Consent agenda a. Council meeting minutes from 10/06/2025 Councilman Drew motioned to approve the 10/06/2025 Council meeting minutes. Councilman Miles seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. 6. Non-agenda items a. Mayor and Council Members Mayor Gott • 11/15, 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM is I Love to Write Day at Duck Creek Regional Library. • 10/15 was Unity in the Community meeting in collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Committee. It went really well, and she asked Chairman Pearson how many he thought they had. It was hard to hear, but it sounds like he said about 40 people. • 10/16 was Unity across Smyrna, Clayton, and Kenton. It was really nice. A lot of people came out. • She attended the Lights on after school program at the Boys and Girls Club. They had an award ceremony. • 10/22, 11/19, and 12/17 the Harvest Outreach People Project will be giving bags of food away from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM at Asbury Church. • 10/14 she met and spoke with the board members at Bon Ayre. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur • Thanked Amanda and Kate for the event they had at the Smyrna Opera House last week.  Councilman Pope • Thanks Town staff for all they do. • Talked about the nor’easter that wasn’t as bad as it was called for. • Talked about a fundraiser that was postponed earlier this year and that more information will be coming up. Councilman Drew • Talked about the Community Town Hall event and how he spoke with the business owners. • Talked about the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting and how it was a nice networking opportunity and to see how the people care for the town. Councilman Miles • Mentioned that Homecoming is this weekend. b. Police Chief Mayor Gott had Chief Brian Donner speak after Assistant Town Manager Jason McNatt. • He gave recruits’ update. They are doing well in the Academy and about 1/4 of the way done. • Final interview for a dispatcher on Wednesday. He has 25 years of experience. • They had tested for officers this past weekend. It was low turnout, low pass rate, but they’ll see who they have among those who passed and see if they can get a recruiter or two from that group. • He nominated two officers for Mothers Against Drunk Driver and found out that they will be recognized with statewide awards for their commitment to impaired driving enforcement. That will be in November in Wilmington. The awards come from the Office of Highway Safety. • He mentioned that Trick-or-Treating will be 5 PM to 8 PM, [on Halloween], and asked that people try to stick to that as it a strain on them that day. Mayor Gott thanked him for getting homecoming and the football game moved from that day. He said he appreciated their support in him in working on getting that moved. c. Town Manager Mayor Gott asked for Assistant Town Manager Jason McNatt to speak first. He is filling in for Town Manager Torrie James, who was out of town during the meeting. • Reminder to residents that this is the second week of the Town-wide Fall pick up, with Friday, 10/24 will be the last day. • Linden’s property process is on-going, with closing to be finalized this week. After Assistant Town Manager McNatt and Chief Donner spoke, Mayor Gott asked Town Solicitor Barrett Edwards if he had anything to speak on. He said that it was brought to his attention that at the last meeting, [which is was out of town for], there were some questions brought up about Town Planner Jeremy Rothwell’s role with the Board of Adjustment and/or the Planning and Zoning Committee. He wanted to clarify that Mr. Rothwell doesn’t serve as a voting member to either and so there is no conflict of interest. Mr. Rothwell’s responsibility as a staff liaison is to provide recommendations. Both bodies have the option to disregard or go with the recommendations, but there is no conflict of interest. He is acting in his role as a staff member. 7. Old business, including discussion and possible action on the following items: a. Downtown Development District renewal Town Planner Jeremy Rothwell presented. He summarized much of what he talked about at the last meeting on October 6th. • 2016 the Town was designated as a Downtown Development District, [DDD], which was good for 10 years  • A perk to the program is that any new redevelopment including rehabilitation and new construction, a developer, property owner, or tenant can get 20% of the cost of rehab or new construction reimbursed to them. An example: $100,000 renovation means $20,000 check from the State. • He talked about the current outline of the DDD, which is 187 acres. • Redevelopment focus areas are eligible for façade grants. o The Town is limited by the State on how much acreage is permitted, so the focus area allows for those areas not part of the DDD to gain something. • The last expansion was in 2024; from 140 acres to 187. • Since 2016, there’s been almost $1.4 million worth of State funds that has come to the downtown business owners, property owners, developers, and tenants. • By February 1st, an updated DDD plan has to be submitted to the Office of State Planning Coordination, [OSPC], and the Delaware State Housing Authority, [DSHA]. o Evaluate how the program has worked in the last 10 years; good, bad, and indifferent. o Move in a different direction? ▪ Revision of strategies. ▪ Revision of incentives. o Requirements ▪ To identify priority projects; less than 10. • He emphasized that this is the Town’s plan and that there should be public workshops; one for business owners and one for residents. • They have the option to expand up to an additional 13 acres. o Spruance City, W. Commerce St., Frasier St. • Demographics have to be updated. o The GIS planner is almost complete in updating all the maps of data. For this evening, he said that they have to decide who gets to move forward with this project; an individual committee like the Redevelopment Authority, or an appointed steering committee. He mentioned that at the last meeting the consensus was to appoint a committee. His recommendation was and still is to have 7 to 9 people with one Councilmember as a representative. He provided the Town Manager with a list of potential people. Mayor Gott said that they have seen the list and with many of those people already on committees, she feels that in a town of 14,000, there should be other people on the [DDD] committee. The Town Manager had suggested that the appointment of the committee be tabled until he returns. Jeremy pointed out that the deadline for the new plan is February 1st. b. Appointments to the Downtown Development District Steering Committee* Councilman Miles asked if this item needed a motion to be moved to the next meeting. Town Solicitor Barrett said yes. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to table this item until the next meeting. Councilman Miles seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion passed. 8. New business, including discussion and possible action on the following items: a. Resolution 009, adopting a map and text amendment to the 2020 Town of Smyrna Comprehensive Plan Town Planner Jeremy Rothwell explained what this was about: it is a text amendment to rectify two shortcomings that were identified in the Comprehensive Plan. • In October 2023, Town Council opted to move forward with the sale of 5.46 acres of land which is the back of the George Wright park and inaccessible by road to the Town. It is behind the Smyrna Mart Shopping Center. It was to allow this property to be developed as an extension of the Smyrna Self-Storage. Under DE State law,  the Future Land Use Map of the Comprehensive Plan has to line up with the adopted zoning ordinance. Before moving forward with the sale, which should happen in the next few weeks, this text amendment needs to be approved. o When they voted to sell the property, he had to submit an application to the State’s preliminary land use service; they review and approve any large scale development projects and review and approve comprehensive plans. Upon the sale, the application was review on September 3rd and approved. The Office of State Planning Coordination came back and asked for a resolution. This is to cross the Ts and dot the Is. • In 2012, the previous Town Planner Janet Vinc inadvertently put a maximum density provision, [in the Land Use Development Plan], which was in conflict with the apartment projects; it was about dwelling units per acre and the apartment projects exceeded that maximum density. This was reviewed in December 2023 by the Planning Commission and Council. Mayor Gott asked about Townhouses and thought that 12 to 14 on an acre was a lot but just realized these are apartment buildings. Jeremy said that it is apartments; it’s based on the number of dwelling units. He gave the example of Sunnyside Village apartments. They have almost 20 dwelling units per acre but the comp plan says that it cannot exceed 12. This [text amendment] would be taking out the inconsistent language. Councilman Miles asked if this was one resolution for both changes. It was confirmed yes. Councilman Miles motioned to approve the resolution. Councilman Drew seconded, though there was another voice before his. a. Appointments to the Finance Committee* Mayor Gott said that she would like to appoint Vetra Evans. Councilman Pope asked if there was any discussion. There was none. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to approve Vetra Evans to the Finance Committee. Nice Miles seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. b. Senior Exemption discount for Mobile Home Placement Permits** Finance Director Kathleen Acevedo presented. This is for the reduction of the Mobile Home Placement permit fee from $100 to $50 for eligible residents aged 65 and older and who meet the income guidelines. Mayor Gott asked if this was for manufactured homes or all forms of mobile homes. Kathleen said this would be for Bon Ayre and the Duck Creek [mobile home] park. Councilman Drew motioned to approve. Councilman Miles seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. 9. Presentation and public comments (3 minutes) The floor was open to the public at 7:26 PM. No one spoke. 10. Executive Session to discuss the personnel matters in which the names, competency, and abilities of individual employees will be discussed. 29 Del. C. Sec. 10004(b)(9) Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to go into Executive Session. Councilman Miles seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. Executive Session began at 7:26 PM. 11. Possible action on matters discussed in Executive Session regarding personnel matters  There was a motion being carried as Mayor and Council were entering back into the room at 7:34 PM. However, Council Chambers was muted at the time, so the recording only caught partial of the second motion. It was later noted that Councilman Miles motion to come out of Executive Session and Councilman Drew seconded. 12. Adjournment Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to adjourn the meeting. Councilman Drew seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 7:35 PM. Posted 10/13/2025 by 4:30 PM (#1) *Posted 10/14/2025 by 4:30 PM (#2) – item 7b added as a separate topic, item 8b added when topic arose **Posted 10/15/2025 by 4:30 PM (3) – item added when topic arose NOTE: This agenda, as listed, may not be considered in sequence. This agenda is subject to change to include additional items, including Executive Sessions, and/or deletion of items, including Executive Sessions that arise at time of meeting.