The Milford City Council sparred over the state’s influence on its comprehensive plan Nov. 10, but didn’t put it to a vote.

Debate centered on the proposal to designate 700 acres of farmland east of Route 1 as permanent open space. If that land is ever annexed into the city, the proposal goes, it would be kept as farmland, forest, parks or low-density housing, with no high-density development allowed.

However, city officials stated at the meeting, the idea was pushed on them by the Delaware state government, under threat of having the entire comprehensive plan rejected.

“There was considerable arm-twisting by the secretary of agriculture to make the city designate that area as open space,” City Planner Gary Norris said.

The state government must sign off on any local comprehensive plan before it becomes official. Baird said the “arm-twisting” consisted of threats, either implied or explicit, to deny the plan if it did not mark the eastern land for open space.

Of course, when Governor-Elect Jack Markell moves installs his own cabinet, the new secretary might decide that open space east of Route 1 isn’t important at all, which would make that concession meaningless.

“Depending on when we go for certification, the position of the state may be completely different,” Baird said.

The project may already be at least partly dead; the Krauss family, which owns 115 of the 700 acres and has been preparing for annexation since 2005, sent the city a strong letter objecting to their inclusion in the open-space zone.

“Designating our land as open space is not only a detriment to us, but also to the city of Milford,” Mary Lee Krauss wrote.

Former council member Cliff Crouch, representing his employer Key Properties, LLC, also objected to the plan. He said that if his company’s planned “Innovation Park” located east of rout 1 is successful, designating the surrounding land as open space would give it nowhere to expand.

Open space isn’t the only time where a state department used its influence over the plan to force changes. According to Baird, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control pushed the city to modify a wellhead-protection law adopted earlier this year, and threatened to recommend rejecting the comprehensive plan if the modifications didn’t happen.

“This comprehensive plan is supposed to be the city’s comprehensive plan. Why are we letting the state have so much say?” council member John Workman asked.

Baird said the only way around that requirement would be to go ahead with the comprehensive plan with or without state approval, which would probably mean losing state funding.

Although the plan was scheduled for a vote Monday night, Vice Mayor Katrina Wilson, who chaired the meeting in place of Mayor Dan Marabello, never called for one. No information is currently available on when the plan might be adopted.

In other business, the council approved a revamp of the city’s subdivision code that allows the council more leeway in setting fees, prevents developers from claiming stormwater ponds and wetlands as legally-required open space, and requires the yards of new homes to have at least six inches of topsoil – with a detailed definition of “topsoil” in the official engineering specifications.

Council member Mike Spillane called for that change over a period of months, in response to complaints by residents of the Meadows At Shawnee development. According to those residents, the original topsoil was removed during construction and replaced with “nothing but sod on clay,” forcing homeowners to restore the soil at their own expense in order to sustain grass.

 Finally, the council approved a one-year extension for the Amberwood development, located on Holly Hill Road and Route 14. Charlie Barnett, representing developer Lynwood Properties, said he expects the company to get the state approvals it needs to move forward within months. The extension passed 6-1, with Wilson, Workman, Irv Ambrose, James Starling, James Oeschler and Owen Brooks voting for it, and Spillane voting against. Doug Morrow was absent.