Home Remodeling in Smyrna, DE
Remodeling for the historic district, the older streets and the newer subdivisions of Smyrna, Delaware.
Smyrna straddles the line between Kent and New Castle counties on Duck Creek, and it has been one of the state's fastest-growing towns since the 2000s because it sits where Route 1 and Route 13 meet twenty minutes from Middletown and forty from Wilmington. The town's 2020 comprehensive plan is built around that growth, aiming for compact development that fits the historic small-town fabric, and the town keeps a long list of subdivisions on its books, from Big Oak to the communities annexed along its edges. At the center is the historic district, blocks of 19th-century houses around Main Street with a review board of their own.
Three kinds of house, then: the reviewed historic house, the 1950s to 1970s rancher or Cape Cod off Route 13, and the 2000s two-story in a subdivision with an association. Dawson's serves Smyrna for all three, and the rules for each are different enough to be worth knowing before the first call.
The town's own permits and inspections
Smyrna issues its own building permits through its Building and Inspections department, which checks each application against the zoning code first and then for construction standards. That is separate from both Kent County and New Castle County, even though the town lies in both. Contractors and homeowners deal with the town's planning and zoning office for anything that touches lot lines, setbacks or use, and with Building and Inspections for the permit and the inspections.
The Historic District Review Board
Inside the historic district, a certificate from the Historic District Review Board is required before any structure, shed, fence or sign is built, altered, moved or changed in any way. The board was created to assess the district's architecture and to guide homeowners on exterior design, and the town publishes a guide for anyone buying a house in the district. In practice a kitchen or a bathroom inside one of these houses needs the permit and the inspections but not the board, while windows, siding, a porch or an addition need the board's certificate first. Planning those in the right order is most of the difference between a smooth historic-district project and a stalled one.
Ranchers and the subdivisions
The postwar houses around the core are one-story with a small kitchen, one bath and often a crawl space rather than a basement, so the work there is kitchens opened to the living room, bathrooms rebuilt from the subfloor, and additions where the flat lots allow a family room or a primary suite off the back. The subdivision houses from the 2000s are on their first update: the builder kitchen, the platform tub in the primary bath and, where the house has a basement, the concrete box under it. Their associations review exterior changes on top of the town permit.
Ready to plan a remodel in Smyrna?
Call Dom with the address and the project, or send the details through the form. The walkthrough is free and the estimate comes in writing.