---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 9 AND 22 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COUNTIES, MUNICIPALITIES AND PUBLIC LANDS."
description: "This act provides greater flexibility for County and Municipal governments to enter into public-private partnerships for public lands. These agreements provide opportunities for the preservation of public land and limit the amount of government money required to maintain the land."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "SB 246"
citation: "Delaware SB 246 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Harris B. McDowell"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 12
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2018-06-12"
last_action: "2018-07-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5593ebf8-3476-4216-9280-512f7c2e3f1a"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26837"
source_hash: "5ecc980aa8fbb82fdd81577cd4aaf458fa55eeef50c98aaf3d573450b9adc660"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware SB 246 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 9 AND 22 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COUNTIES, MUNICIPALITIES AND PUBLIC LANDS.

This act provides greater flexibility for County and Municipal governments to enter into public-private partnerships for public lands. These agreements provide opportunities for the preservation of public land and limit the amount of government money required to maintain the land.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26837&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB246)

## Votes

- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **17–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **32–8** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Harris B. McDowell — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- David B. McBride — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- John Walsh — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Robert Marshall — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-06-12** Introduced and Assigned to Finance Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-13** Reported Out of Committee (Finance) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-14** Amendment SA 1 to SB 246 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 17 YES 4 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2018-06-14** Passed By Senate. Votes: 17 YES 4 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-06-15** Assigned to Housing & Community Affairs Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-19** Re-Assigned to Natural Resources Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-20** Amendment HA 1 to SB 246 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-06-20** Reported Out of Committee (Natural Resources) in House with 6 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-07-01** Amendment HA 1 to SB 246 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2018-07-01** Passed By House. Votes: 32 YES 8 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-01** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-25** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5593ebf8-3476-4216-9280-512f7c2e3f1a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).