CLAYMONT — New Castle County officials are considering rezoning a large chunk of the former Evraz steel mill into commercial regional, blocking any new industrial use on the site.
If approved by New Castle County Council, the ordinance would rezone 250 acres in Claymont from heavy industrial to commercial regional. It would also open the door for by-right mixed-use development: an idea floated for the past five years since talks about revitalizing the former steel community started.
“This rezoning is probably one of the more important ones you’re going to be looking at this year,” New Castle County Councilman John Cartier told the county Land Use and Planning Board Tuesday night. “This proposes to reuse, re-develop and recycle this old industrial land and give it a new dynamic use in the 21st century.”
The ordinance was proposed by New Castle County officials, although the property owner Community Development Company Inc. is reportedly in favor of it.
For 95 years, the unincorporated town just north of Wilmington was home to a massive steel mill that employed hundreds of people from Delaware and nearby Pennsylvania. The plant had many names, starting with Worth Steel Co. near the end of World War I, making steel plates and pipes.
Over the next 80 years, it was sold six times, including to a company controlled by the People’s Republic of China and with the final owner being the Russian steel giant Evraz Group. In 2013, Evraz closed Claymont Steel, which then employed 375 people, shutting the largest employer in Claymont and altering the community’s future.
In 2015, Community Development Company Inc. bought the former steel mill site with hopes to create an expansive mixed-use site. The latest concept included at least three industrial buildings, seven office buildings and a train station. The master plan also called for retail buildings, as well as 1,200 residential units and a riverfront park.
There have been two warehouses built and leased: Agile Cold Storage and PepsiCo. A $90 million train station was opened in late 2023, serving as a hopeful anchor for not only the workers to come into the area but for future residents.
Brett Saddler, the executive director of the Claymont Renaissance Development Corp., a nonprofit that was formed to help guide the area’s revitalization, told the Delaware Business Times that rezoning the large parcel of land would continue to follow the plan for Claymont’s future.
“We must be creative and diverse when it comes to economic development, and while warehouses are great and offer good-paying jobs, we would like to see more diversity on the land left,” Saddler said. “The residential component is very important, because the end goal is to create a community where Claymont can be called home and support local businesses nearby. This is all tied together.”
There is no estimate for the total affordable housing units for the site, according to officials.
For Cartier, who represents the Eighth District, which includes Claymont, the rezoning ordinance is critical to bringing the community into the 21st century. He told the Delaware Business Times that Claymont had always been a rail town, but with apartment complexes and townhomes, it could become a home for Philadelphia commuters.
“I think if we can get this project completed, we can bring on a more complimentary transit-oriented development. Claymont is a mixed-income community, and we want to keep it that way. It’s also become increasingly populated with younger residents,” Cartier told DBT in February. “We want to keep it that way.”
He pointed to the success with Darley Green, which includes townhomes and apartments, within walking distance of shops on Philadelphia Pike as well as the transit center. That community required 120 units out of 950 units to be kept as affordable housing.
“It’s a benchmark best practice to locate your housing, community offices and retail [in a dense layout] around a mass transit center. The other thing we’re facing across the county is a shortage of housing. This will bring the zoning in alignment with those priorities,” the councilman told DBT.
The public hearing brought neighbors, who raised questions on the potential residential development ranging from environmental standards to noise and income requirements. Roby Anstett, a Claymont Coalition for Environmental Justice member, noted that state and federal environmental regulators evaluated the site for risks of mercury from the plant melt shop operations when the steel plant closed down.
“This development is one parcel away from the site. Any development happening near this site I think needs to include comprehensive radiology surveying,” Anstett said Tuesday.
