Yorklyn’s history as a floodplain: the catastrophic impacts of Tropical Storm Henri in 2003 that shuttered many businesses, led to the ultimate closure of NVF.
The main investors who bought up the land in Yorklyn:
CCS Investors (Carpenter, Cattermole, and Snavely)
Quarry Walk LLC (Drake McNish Cattermole)
Mill 6 Redevelopment LLC (Drake McNish Cattermole)
Mills Edge (Drake McNish Cattermole)
Auburn Village LLC (Harold “Bud” Thomas)
Opera House Partners (Harold “Bud” Thomas)
JGR LLC (Harold “Bud” Thomas)
Yorklyn SE Properties LLC (unconfirmed ownership).
New Castle County previously had control over zoning and land use throughout Yorklyn: That is how we stopped a 40,000 square-foot development proposal in 2008.
In 2011, DNREC created a plan for redeveloping the area where the NVF factory buildings used to be. That was called the “Auburn Valley Master Plan,” or AVMP. To implement that plan, the state legislature removed New Castle County’s power over land use in the Auburn Valley Master Plan area. After the NCC Planning Board meeting that stopped the out of scale 2008 proposal, the state legislature inserted one sentence that removed NCC authority over what became the Auburn Valley Master Plan. That single sentence in the annual bond bill has upheld that arrangement ever since. This year’s bond bill will go to committee on March 31st, 2025.
The original Auburn Valley Master Plan from 2011 set forth a reasonable vision for Yorklyn’s redevelopment. It was sensitive to the environment, local history, community character, and future quality of life.
Between 2011 and 2024, DNREC and real estate developers broke the promises of the original plan and sidelined the community from the process.
DNREC unilaterally added two parcels of land to the Auburn Valley Master Plan in 2020 (Quarry Walk, Mill 6, and Mills Edge). Had these parcels remained under the jurisdiction of New Castle County, they would have been zoned as suburban or suburban estate - both residential districts designed to preserve the low density character of northern New Castle County. Instead, Quarry Walk, Mill 6, and Mills Edge have a combined 136 subdivided parcels and a total of 129 proposed houses within Drake McNish Cattermole’s project.
DNREC allowed 10 acres of mature woodland to be cut down at the Quarry Walk site on the intersection of Old Wilmington and Yorklyn Rd.
DNREC allowed Chatham Bay to propose a 6-story luxury condo building that violates the AVMP guidelines and would be utterly out of character with the area. It would also harm the environment, drinking water supply, historical preservation efforts, and future quality of life. This proposal has not yet been approved - we need to keep it that way.
There are now a total of 280 housing units proposed on Yorklyn Road - directly over our aquifer, which is a part of the Water Resource Protection Area. The impact of this could ultimately be that wells in Yorklyn, Hockessin, and beyond will dry out, and no studies have been done to prove that this would not be the case. The county did not plan for or base any calculations on the currently approved (by DNREC) 129 units on Mills Edge and Quarry Walk, let alone the additional 151 units in a six-story apartment complex being proposed by Chatham Bay. Chatham Bay’s proposal, unlike Cattermole’s three parcels, has not yet been approved - and we hope to keep it that way.
