Hudson Fields scores exemption to keep on rocking with summer concerts

Summer nights in southern Delaware will keep on rocking after a Sussex County board voted Monday night to grant Hudson Fields a grandfathered status for holding special events.

A proposed new regulation would have limited the facility to three events, but Sussex County Board of Adjustment on Monday night voted 4-0 to approve Hudson Family LLC's request to have its Milton-area property officially recognized as a place where special events have been held for decades and therefore not subject to any new rule. 

Christian Hudson and his brother Jamin of Hudson Family LLC argued that they could document events held before 1970, in the 1990s and through the years since.

"I think they did the right thing," Christian Hudson said after the vote. "Everybody realized that this is ongoing and pre-existing."

The organization's summer 2017 concert series, which returns this year, at Hudson Fields along Del. 1 near Milton, had sparked talk of a new regulation.

The Hudson Fields concert space, which debuted in summer 2017 with country act Old Dominion, takes up about 18 acres of the 80-acre property that was the original home of the now-discontinued Punkin Chunkin. Dewey Beach-based Highway One Group, which owns the Bottle & Cork, was behind last year's concert series that attracted an estimated 4,000 music lovers to each of the three 2017 concerts.

It was the new concert series at Hudson Fields, which elicited some complaints about noise from nearby neighbors, that in part prompted the council to revisit the county's original special events ordinance adopted in 2013.

County officials have been debating a proposed ordinance that could limit how many special events such as circuses, concerts and festivals can be held on private property, and what approvals those events would need.

Sussex County Council has not discussed the proposed new special events ordinance since late February; it is unclear when the rules will resurface for a vote.

During the last discussion, council members expressed a desire to exclude nonprofits from possible limits on money-generating events. As proposed, the ordinance would limit special events to three per year, and require people or organizations to get a permit from the county's planning and zoning director.

Christian Hudson said Freedom of Information Act requests revealed that fewer than 10 people complained about the noise from the concerts.

"In the end, the right thing happened and justice prevailed," he said.

Alex Pires of Highway One said only two concerts are planned this year: Old Dominion and Jake Owen. Owen will perform July 18 and Old Dominion will take the Sussex County stage in August.

Hudson Family LLC also asked the board to grant grandfathered status to a private airport on the property, which was approved.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.