MORGANTOWN — Wiles Hill/Highland Park residents are concerned that planning study of a portion of their neighborhood will lead to changes that could affect the character and safety of their community.
The city held a community meeting with the Wiles Hill/Highland Park Neighborhood Association at the Wile Hill Community Center Wednesday evening to review the plan to examine “Study Area No. 5,” which runs along Stewart Street and Highland and Jones Avenues.
Engineer Christopher Rogers, with AECOM, gave an overview of the study. This is one of 18 small areas that the city’s Comprehensive Plan includes for special study to consider zoning and land use issues.
Area 5 encompasses 13 acres and contains 61 parcels. The northeast half is zoned R-1A (single family housing) and contains 32 parcels. The south and southwest portion is zoned R-2 (townhouses, with multi-family subject to permitting) and contains the Jones Place student townhouse complex.
Greg Metheny, representing Scott Properties, previously asked to Planing Commission that 18 parcels adjacent to Jones Place, on a steep hillside, be rezoned to R-3 (multifamily). That request is on hold.
AECOM’s study, Rogers said, will look at, among other things, permitting modest increases in density in the area, discouraging continued added density of converted single-family homes now used as rentals, establishing appropriate design standards and improving infrastructure to handle slightly higher density.
Between now and June, he said, they will test and come up with various land use scenarios. They aim to develop a plan by the end of June and tentatively hold a second neighborhood forum at that time. They hope to deliver a plan for Planning Commission review by end of August, and are open to having a third neighborhood meeting.
Residents voiced a variety of objections and concerns. Betty Garrett, a 33-year resident, addressed Metheny’s plan to build apartments standing as tall as 80 feet at the edge of the neighborhood, overlooking WVU and downtown.
She recently put $25,000 worth of improvements into her home, she said. “I really do not want an eight-story building across the street from me.”
Several residents addressed the need for affordable, workforce housing in Morgantown — something available in Wiles Hill/Highland Park that should be encourage. “You need someplace besides Suncrest and South Park to live,” one resident said. “This is a great, diverse neighborhood. It’s not all rich, $200,000 houses.”
Several also raised concerns about the neighborhood’s geology. Zack Cruse said the USDA has the area mapped as very limited for supporting even small business structures and excavations. The landform isn’t geologically stable clear down to Jones Place.
“We’re already having problems with slips and landslides,” he said. “What is going to be done to ensure the protection of our neighborhood?”
Rogers said that the scope of their study doesn’t include a geotechnical analysis to determine the load-bearing capacity of the landforms. That would come later, and if appropriate he would recommend additional care when the building permit plans are being reviewed for stability.
Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin said she fears that the study already reflects mission creep and goes beyond the intent of the review. Residents fear that that some undesirable rezoning will remove the buffer zone between the multi-family and single family housing areas.
Mayor Bill Kawecki said, “It’s not so much they’re against development in that area. Their concern is for what that development does to community, how it affects what is here now and what the results of whatever you recommend will wreak on this community.”
Rogers answered, “That’s what we’re always challenged with as planners, is trying to accommodate growth while protecting existing communities.”
The meeting concluded with a walk down to Jones Place and the adjacent slide-prone hillside where Metheny hopes to build. They talked about the dangers of building there and how it might affect the character of the community. A tall apartment complex could destroy the motivation for some to convert the former single-family rental homes back to single-family workforce housing.
One resident’s voice rose from the group for a moment: “It’s ridiculous.”
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
