MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — More than 50 residents came to the Wiles Hill Community Center Thursday night for one of the last input opportunities into the Morgantown Comprehensive Plan, Morgantown 2033.
West Virginia state law requires municipalities to update comprehensive plans every 10 years.
The plan addresses historic preservation, renewal, and/or redevelopment. housing, transportation, infrastructure, community services, economic development, facilities, recreation, and the overall layout and design of the community.
Morgantown Development Services Director Rickie Yeager said one of the barriers in the plan is the availability of space to grow housing. With few opportunities for annexation and a shortage of undeveloped land, new housing opportunities will have to be developed in neighborhoods like Sabraton, the 705 corridor, Lower Greenmont, downtown, and The Waterfront.
“Because we’re pretty much built out, a lot of the plan will focus on how we reinvest with infill development and redevelopment in the community outside our own city limits,” Yeager said.
Woodburn resident Lindsey Jacobs said she lives near several rental properties that are in disrepair. She said many of the properties are along Richwood Avenue, creating an eye-sore upon entering the neighborhood.
“I understand some landlords need help to fix up the properties, and I’m totally supportive of that,” Jacobs said. ” But what we can’t have are these slummy, probably unsafe, probably uninhabitable properties around town. I think it’s a big problem.”
In Greenmont, the problems relate to housing, the environment, the roads, truck traffic, and crime. Gary Maust, a member of the Greenmont Neighborhood Association and resident, said they limit their investment in the area because of the issues and a lack of support from the city.
“We stay away from Brockway Avenue, and we stay away from Pennsylvania Avenue because there’s no help from the city right now to bring that area up,” Maust said. “We want to invest in that area, but until something is done that shows they’re interested in it, I mean, there’s talk about it, but we haven’t seen any action yet.”
Rick Landenberger is a 30-year resident of the Greenmont area and has very similar concerns. But the trucks running from 3:30 a.m. through late at night, spewing diesel fumes and excessive noise, are the main reason that neighborhood is deteriorating.
“There’s going to be trout in Deckers Creek in the next year, and that whole lower South Park and Greenmont would blossom—I mean, bloom like you can’t believe if those trucks didn’t go through there,” Landenberger said. “They wreck it; they’ve totally wrecked that neighborhood.”
Monongalia County Director of Planning, Andrew Gast-Bray, also attended the meeting because of their close collaboration with the city. Gast-Bray stressed the need to work together when projects are near or cross a border.
“The vision expressed by a comprehensive plan crosses those boundaries, and the boundaries do change and things happen, but they have to work together,” Gast-Bray said.
A release date for the final Morgantown 2033 Plan has not been set.