Kent County
Custom Home Builder in Harrington, Delaware
Harrington is a small city in southern Kent County, close enough to us that it falls well inside our comfortable working radius. It is surrounded by some of the most productive farmland in the state, and most of the interesting building opportunities here are on that agricultural edge rather than in town.
- Drive from our office
- About 40 min
- Permits issued by
- City of Harrington
- Typical ground
- Flat farmland, Greenwich loam
- Wastewater
- City sewer in town, septic outside
In town and out of town are different projects
Harrington proper is a compact grid with modest older lots, city water and city sewer. A build there is a conventional in-town project and the city handles the permit.
Step outside the limits and you are on Kent County agricultural land, which is where most people buying to build actually end up. There the county rules apply, public sewer is usually not available, and the half-acre minimum with 150 feet of road frontage becomes the governing constraint. Outside the Growth Zone, the agricultural districts want 200 feet of frontage and 150 feet of lot width.
Building on farmland has its own sequence
A parcel carved out of a working farm is not a subdivision lot and should not be approached like one. There is often no road frontage improvement, no utilities at the property line, and no prior soil work. The order that actually works is: confirm the parcel can be legally divided and built on, get the Class H soil evaluation and the DNREC septic design, establish where the well can go relative to the septic, then design a house that fits what is left.
Doing it the other way round, designing first and testing later, is how people end up with a plan that cannot be sited. We have seen it more than once and it is entirely avoidable.
Excellent ground, once you are past the paperwork
This is Greenwich loam country, the Delaware state soil, and it is genuinely good to build on. Well drained, predictable, flat. Excavation is easy and footings bear on consistent material. Where the ground gets difficult is in the low pockets and the drainage ditches that thread through farmland, and those show up in the soil evaluation rather than on a plat.
The fairgrounds and the raceway
Harrington hosts the Delaware State Fair and a harness racing track, and for about two weeks each summer the town's traffic and accommodation change completely. It is a minor point but a real one for scheduling: we avoid planning deliveries or concrete pours into fair week, because the logistics simply do not work.
Outside that window Harrington is one of the easiest places in Kent County for us to work. Short run from the office, straightforward ground, and a city department that is direct to deal with.
Thinking about building in Harrington?
Send us the parcel number and we will tell you what we find before you spend anything. Zoning district, sewer or septic, who reviews it, and whether the lot will take the house you have in mind.