MORGANTOWN — The city of Morgantown is plotting its course into the future and it’s asking its citizens for directions.
West Virginia code mandates cities undergo a comprehensive planning process every 10 years.
Morgantown Director of Development Services Rickie Yeager said city staff have spent the last few months laying the groundwork with Alexandria, Va.- based consultant Rhodeside and Hardwell through a series of stakeholder meetings.
“So now we’re getting to where there’s a baseline of understanding and a lot of research that’s been done. Now we want to go to the public and see if we’re missing anything. What are the issues that we’re missing. That’s the next step,” Yeager said during a recent meeting with The Dominion Post Editorial Board.
To that end, the city will hold an in-person public input session at 6 p.m. March 3 at the Morgantown Event Center, in the Wharf District.
At 10 a.m. March 5, a virtual public input meeting will be held. For more information or to register for the virtual meeting, visit the city’s website, contact the Development Services Department at 304-284-7431, or email bmcdonald@morgantownwv.gov.
“The more participation, the stronger the plan. We really believe that,” City Manager Kim Haws said. “I’ve been with organizations where public input wasn’t viewed all that favorably, because ‘[the public] doesn’t really know what’s going on.’ Our paradigm here in Morgantown is completely different. It really is. It’s important for us to know how our residents perceive the issues today and how they perceive the way we’re operating as a city.”
Haws said the last comprehensive planning process, in 2013, highlighted a number of issues the city has addressed, including the need for aggressive airport development and regular, yearly street maintenance.
The next eight to 14 months will be about what it wants to focus on next and positioning itself to take advantage of the opportunities like federal infrastructure dollars.
“The city’s goal, in each of these areas, is to have enough specificity in the plan that we’ll be able to use it to develop the documents that create shovel-ready opportunities,” Haws said. “It’s not very productive to sit around and say, ‘We need this,’ and then wait to do the planning and development when the money comes available, and everyone is jumping on it. Our plan is to have that information up front so that we can hit the ground running.”
The city’s comprehensive planning process is happening in conjunction with similar efforts by the county, WVU and the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization, prompting Mayor Jenny Selin to dub 2022 “the year of the plan.”
“We’ve got a lot going on,” Selin said. “It’s a nice moment of reflection on behalf of all these entities, thinking about what has happened with the last plan and what we want to include with this plan and how it can improve our area.”
Both Selin and Yeager said that community-wide planning approach set the 2013 process apart in the state.
“A lot of these plans just sit on the shelf, but it’s Morgantown’s intent that it is a working document that is reviewed regularly by city staff. One of the key components that we’re hoping comes out of this process is some very specific goals,” Haws said. “Then we intend to assign specific departments and individuals to the components of this plan so there’s some accountability.”
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