YORKLYN DEVELOPMENT UPDATE | 6.9.2025
Good news: the Chatham Bay proposal for a 6-story luxury condo building has been denied! At the end of May, DNREC denied the proposal because it did not follow the guidelines and site restrictions outlined in the 2011 Auburn Valley Master Plan.
Chatham Bay can still submit a new proposal to DNREC, but it would have to be much smaller and follow the Master Plan guidelines. For now, we applaud DNREC Secretary Greg Patterson, Matt Ritter, and their colleagues for making the right decision. And we thank all of you who came to the April 29th town hall and expressed your concerns.
Below you can read the message that Secretary Patterson shared with us, which includes the rationale for the Chatham Bay decision. In addition, DNREC has also committed not to add any new properties to the Auburn Valley Master Plan.
Message from DNREC Secretary Patterson to Yorklyn community, May 25, 2025:
1. Last week, DNREC communicated to the developers of the proposed Chatham Bay project that we will give no further consideration to the proposal that has been presented. Specifically, we identified concerns due to: the proposal not being mixed use as shown in the Auburn Valley Master Plan; remediation done on the site not envisioning first-floor residential use; the height of the proposed building exceeding Auburn Valley architectural guidelines and not matching the massing of nearby structures; no plan for adaptive reuse of existing buildings; and anticipated significant road improvements due to traffic from that number of residential units.
2. Following the community meeting and our conversations, I will confirm that no properties beyond those listed in the slide we shared in the community meeting (included below, and you have the slides as well) will be considered for inclusion in the AVMP. Further, should there be any request by the four (Mill 1/Bldg 15-18, 200 Gun Club, 29B, Garret Snuff Mills) that do not currently have a redevelopment agreement, they will not be added without an open public session to air any proposal and the redevelopment terms.
