MORGANTOWN — You’ve got to have a plan.
For West Virginia’s political subdivisions that’s more than good advice — it’s the law.
On Thursday evening at WVU’s Mountaineer Station, planning personnel from Monongalia County, Morgantown and the WVU College of Law’s Land Use Clinic met with the public to answer questions and collect feedback as each works to finalize mandatory 10-year updates to their respective comprehensive plans.
As the name would suggest, the plans are extensive. Going well beyond a simple wish list, a comprehensive plan takes stakeholder and public input and drafts a map that not only identifies where a community wants to go, but the strategies and philosophies behind how it wants to get there.
Or, as Monongalia County Director of Planning Andrew Gast-Bray explained it, “If you don’t aim for anything, you tend to get what you aim for.”
As an example, Morgantown’s 2013 plan highlighted aggressive airport expansion and annual street paving and maintenance as major city priorities. Fast forward 10 years, a $65 million runway extension project is underway and the city just completed its most ambitious summer of paving since implementing a $3 user fee as the funding mechanism in 2016.
For dozens of smaller communities across West Virginia without dedicated planning staff, WVU Law’s Land Use Clinic steps in to lend a hand.
Land Use Attorney Jared Anderson said he’s in the process of working with Star City on a plan update. His colleague, Christy Demuth, is doing the same for Granville and Westover.
“We’re taking public input. We’ll probably have an open house for all three of these on their own as well,” he said, noting the clinic also assists with things like zoning, subdividion regulations and dilapidated properties if called upon.
County Planner Patricia Booth said she’s spent the last six months or so working on the 187-page draft plan available through the planning commission links at monongaliacounty.gov. She said the goal is to have the plan finalized and adopted in February.
Gast-Bray said bringing everyone together for Thursday’s open house makes sense as the plans aren’t carried out in a vacuum.
“This is a strength. It helps you craft things in a logical way. West Virginia doesn’t have tons of money to throw away, so we have to be thoughtful. Having these things work together helps,” he said, noting it’s also helpful for local grant applications when multiple entities can support the need or desire for projects by pointing to priorities laid out in their respective plans.
To that end, Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Executive Director Bill Austin was on hand to discuss the projects the MPO has identified as part of a Safe Streets for All grant application.
Those projects, totaling an estimated $30.7 million, including a reconstruction and relocation of Willey Street, an upgrade of pedestrian and bicycle facilities on the High Street/Dorsey Avenue corridor, a multipurpose path along WV 705 from the Mileground to Maple Drive and crosswalk projects in Granville and Star City.
The U.S. Department of Transportation will distribute $5 billion over the next five years as part of that grant program.
