MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association will consider putting its weight behind a piece of legislation that, if adopted, would impact the content of subdivision regulations considered for Monongalia County.
According to the WVAPA’s monthly newsletter, the body’s legislative committee has been reviewing changes to Chapter 8A of West Virginia Code, which pertains to land use planning.
Monongalia County Planning Director Andrew Gast-Bray said West Virginia is a rural state and the law as currently written is understandably geared toward more rural counties. Many of these areas do not employ planning staff.
The changes proposed for 8A, he continued, would not impact these counties, but would allow areas of the state with planning staff to use staff to make things like the application review process more efficient.
“As we are becoming more sophisticated as a state, and we are, we should be able to use some of the best techniques that are out there,” Gast-Bray said. “More people are getting staffed to do planning and that’s great. Why not take full advantage of it?”
The proposed changes would also update the language to include new definitions, like broadband infrastructure, that weren’t a consideration when the law was originally drafted.
If the legislation were to ultimately pass, Gast-Bray said it would likely trim 10-20 pages from the Subdivision and Land Development Regulations that are available in draft form on the county’s website (monongaliacounty.gov) but have yet to go before the county commission.
“This is not high-priority stuff for most people, but it would make a big difference on our subdivision regs because all of our work-arounds are trying to make sure there’s no problem with language,” he said. “Other people across the state have been encountering the same challenges.”
The WVAPA is expected to vote Thursday on whether to support the proposed amendments during the upcoming legislative session.
The push for subdivision regulations in Monongalia County stretches back decades, including major initiatives that were undertaken, and ultimately abandoned, in 1978, 1994 and 2009.
This latest effort took off in earnest with the hiring of Gast-Bray in April 2019.
