Residents of Yorklyn and Hockessin woke up one day in early September of 2021 to find that 10 acres of luxurious trees had been eviscerated along Yorklyn Road at the intersection of Hockessin Hills Road. Locals say they never saw the desecration coming, and they have been reeling from the event ever since. 

“It looked like a bomb went off,” said Judy Piser, a lifelong Yorklyn resident who lives about two miles up the road from the scene. “One day the trees were standing, and the next day they were gone.”

Susan Krewatch, who lives in Hockessin, said she was driving along Yorklyn Road and suddenly thought to herself, “Something doesn’t look right.” When it dawned on her that all the trees were missing, she said she was horrified. She had to pull over to the side of the road to catch her breath and then she sat there for quite a while in a state of shock and despair.

“The removal of those grand, old-growth trees totally changed and depreciated the area,” she said. 

Local residents learned that the trees were removed to make way for a 61-unit subdivision called Quarry Walk, that this construction was approved by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), and the project involved a partnership between that state agency and private developer Quarry Walk, LLC. 

Residents say they would have voiced objections about all the trees coming down and the density of the subdivision had they known about the project. They say the slated conjoined structures are not in keeping with the character of the rural area. 

DNREC responded that legal notices were placed in The News Journal, but the residents in the surrounding area say that this type of notification is insufficient – it puts the onus on them to follow public notices when the burden should be on DNREC to ensure that local residents are informed. 

DNREC also stated that the potential construction of the Quarry Walk subdivision was presented to the public as a concept at an April 2016 Auburn Valley Master Plan update session. The master plan is the mechanism for the redevelopment of areas of Yorklyn, and its goals are to clean up grounds and water contaminated from bygone industries and to expand public recreation, commercial, and residential opportunities. 

Residents who attended that 2016 meeting say they do not recall hearing about Quarry Walk. They say that the property, which is in Hockessin, was not part of the original Auburn Valley Master Plan, and was never depicted on its maps.  

They say that only after they voiced outrage by calling state representatives and county officials concerning the missing trees did DNREC inform them about the plans for a subdivision. They were apprized at a public meeting held Sept. 17, 2021.

“We were told at the meeting that the subdivision would bring money into the community,” said Piser, “but not one resident who attended the 2021 meeting wanted the townhouses to be built – not one.”

DNREC admitted in a statement posted on its website, “DNREC should have done a better job communicating the specifics of the residential portions of the plan now coming online, including the critical role they play in the public-private partnership. DNREC had a responsibility to communicate directly with the public on the specifics of the residential portions of the redevelopment, and we should have done so.”

DNREC further stated on its website that partnerships with private developers are necessary to achieve the goals of the Auburn Valley Master Plan. It said, “Without the private developer involvement, the state would not have been able to transform the area with public funding alone following the 2009 bankruptcy of NVF.”

National Vulcanized Fibre (NVF) was once a thriving manufacturing plant whose operations relied on soaking paper in zinc chloride, and the vacant property needed  massive chemical cleanup. During 2008 and 2009, DNREC put together a multi-divisional work group and joined with private developer partner CCS Investors to secure the former 119-acre NVF site. CCS Investors purchased the entire property from the bankruptcy trustee and then DNREC’s Division of Parks and Recreation purchased various parcels or conservation easements from CCS.

Area residents were informed about and onboard with the NVF addition to the Auburn Valley Master Plan.

Since 2008, DNREC divisions and developer partners removed an estimated 80,000 pounds of zinc from groundwater beneath the NVF site and approximately 340,000 pounds of zinc from the soil. Also zinc chloride-containing solid waste, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, corrosive acidic waste, paint-related wastes, and many more harmful chemicals have been remediated. Through a multi-divisional effort, several wetlands were created to address the site’s flooding problems.

Under the Auburn Valley Master Plan, DNREC had also been managing approximately 313 acres of Yorklyn property that includes Auburn Heights lands, mansion, and Stanley Steamer car museum, all donated to the state by Tom and Ruth Marshall in 2008, and the Oversee Farm property, which had belonged to Tom’s cousin, Eleanor Marshall Reynolds, and which was sold to the Nature Conservancy in 2003 and transferred to the state in 2006. 

The NVF site lies between those two acquisitions, and DNREC’s purchase of properties there enabled it to protect the Marshall Mansion’s viewshed. The entire state-managed property with the addition of NVF acreage is around 360 acres, and it is now Delaware’s newest state park, Auburn Valley State Park.

In addition to receiving updates about NVF remediation from DNREC, residents were kept in the loop concerning Auburn Heights and Oversee Farm’s renovations, which included installation of historic bridges and a walking/running trail. They also knew about, and even largely accepted, the creation of a 41-unit Yorklyn townhouse development called Mill Six that was part of the early Auburn Valley Master Plan.

The later addition of the giant Quarry Walk development to the Auburn Valley Master Plan is what turned residents’ sentiments toward DNREC sour. They like the rural character of Yorklyn, and they want to keep it that way. 

Carlos Alejandro, a long-time Yorklyn business owner said, “What DNREC and Drake Cattermole (of CCS Investors and Quarry Walk, LLC) see as ‘undeveloped land,’ the community sees as habitat, mitigation of flooding, and future quality of life. Cutting down 10 acres or 430,560 square feet of trees and established habitat without community involvement or proper notice is a huge problem. It cannot be undone.”

DNREC claims that the Quarry Walk property was added to the master plan because it was a certified brownfield due to high levels of arsenic and thallium, and like with the NVF property, the agency had to partner with and make concessions with developers in order to clean up the area.

Residents fear that DNREC will add more land to the Auburn Valley Master Plan and mark it for townhouse development. 

Typically, New Castle County is the authority on local land-use issues, but when it comes to the Auburn Valley Master Plan, DNREC is exempt from submitting development plans to the county for approval. This power was granted by an act of the Delaware General Assembly in 2010. 

The agency says its property plans were given greater flexibility in terms of allowing for dense, bulk building than county zoning laws allow in order to incentivize the private sector to remediate property.

“The problem is, we don’t know how far DNREC is going to take its power,” said Alejandro. “It has been given free rein to partner with developers and build. Is it going to add more land to the master plan? If the county had been involved in the 10-acre property along Yorklyn Road, building would have been limited and the New Castle County Unified Development Code would have required developers to work around old growth, habitat, and riparian buffers.”

Susanne Moran, a Yorklyn resident since 1972, said, “A Yorklyn resident recently wanted to build additional homes on land that he owns, and he had to go through a lengthy process with New Castle County and was held to land-use codes, which limit the amount of building per acre. Yet, commercial developments, proposed by people who do not live in Yorklyn, are managing to escape these codes.”  

Marcus Henry, candidate for New Castle County Executive, weighed in on the situation.

“As County Executive, I will be committed to ensuring that our partnerships with state agencies like DNREC are open and transparent,” he said. “We must work closely together to foster a climate of trust and engagement, ensuring the community’s voice is heard in every project that affects them.”

Residents’ sentiments toward DNREC are continuing to sour as it appears more townhouse development is underway. The state agency has also sanctioned construction of a 27-unit townhouse called Mill’s Edge on Yorklyn Road in Hockessin. 

Moran mentioned another unwanted commercial development plan.

“We were told at 2011 and 2016 Auburn Master Plan update meetings the former NVF site would be turned into a mix of commercial businesses and residential units, but with public amenities such as tennis courts, equestrian stables, walking paths, and an amphitheater,” she said. “These amenities are no longer included in the master plan, making the entire project purely commercial and for profit, not for the betterment of the community.”   

Presently, Quarry Walk is continuing to raise the ire of local residents. After Apex Engineering submitted an application to DNREC, Division of Water, to install twelve temporary 1500-gallon wastewater storage tanks at Quarry Walk, residents submitted a 100-plus signature petition requesting a hearing. 

Residents who signed the petition say they need more information about the storage tanks. They want to know how long they will be in the ground, what entity is going to service them, what entity is going to remove them, and whether there will be a smell when they are emptied. They also have worries about trucks flowing in and out of the area since the tanks will need to be pumped out every two days.

DNREC agreed to hold a virtual public hearing on the matter on June 25.

Quarry Walk, LLC, has also submitted an application to install a permanent pump station and sanitary sewer force main to serve the Quarry Walk residential subdivision. 

Right now, the Quarry Walk site consists of only road and curb infrastructure. Many residents continue to rue the day the trees came down, and they would like to see trees replanted. Others are OK with some development, but they would like it to be on a smaller scale. 

“I would have liked to have the trees remain,” Piser said. “If development had to take place, I would have preferred to retain more of the natural tree growth and to create affordable housing, not luxury housing, that will benefit existing residents who are looking to buy a first-time home.”