MORGANTOWN — It appears as if a proposal regulating where guns can be sold in the city of Morgantown is going to be taken up by the Morgantown Planning Commission.
Exactly what that proposal is going to look like remains to be seen.
Following a Thursday evening work session, the commission tasked Development Services Director Rickie Yeager with presenting a plan that it can act upon and ultimately present to Morgantown City Council with its recommendation.
The issue briefly came before the commission back in August at the request of Protect Morgantown, the community group that successfully pressured developer Hardy World to void a lease with firearms retailer Big Daddy Guns for The Deck development, at 1050 University Ave. The development is located in a B-4, or general business, zoning district.
At that time, Protect Morgantown submitted a proposal that would create a new definition “firearms sales establishment,” and define where such a use would be permitted.
Yeager took that proposal and offered the commission two options after researching laws currently on the books in Almeda County, Cal; Newton, Mass; Windsor, Cal; and Piscataway Township, NJ.
Option 1 spelled out the definition, which would essentially be any establishment selling firearms, including new pawn shops, while offering exclusions for antique or historic firearms. Further it would restrict firearm sales to B-5 (shopping center) by right and B-2 (service business) by conditional use, meaning it would need approval from the Morgantown Board of Zoning Appeals.
Option 2 would include everything in Option 1 but would further pare down where such stores can locate through a supplemental “incompatible use separation” regulation that states a firearms retail establishment cannot be within 500 feet, as the crow flies, of schools, college campuses/universities, medical centers, churches, places of worship, day care facilities, parks, libraries, and community centers.
The body took no action at the time and requested additional information, particularly data supporting such restrictions.
On Thursday, members of the board explained they didn’t want options, they wanted the best proposal Yeager could present working in conjunction with Protect Morgantown and its representative, former Huntington planner Shae Strait.
“Addressing all the sociological issues that are surrounding this, we could go on forever, but that’s not our role. I think it’s important to remember we’re not elected, we’re appointed. For the public to have the correct forum to talk about this, that’s city council, that’s not us,” Commissioner Tim Stranko said, later adding, “We can only regulate for the purposes that the law allows us to regulate for.”
Members of the commission also questioned the use of proximity restrictions, asking how an appropriate distance is calculated and exactly what data those calculations are based upon.
“I’ll say this at the outset, I do not like proximity because I think it’s arbitrary. I think that’s going to get us in more trouble than anything,” Planning Commission President Peter DeMasters said.
Yeager explained that he doesn’t believe any other city in West Virginia uses proximity restrictions for gun stores and that Morgantown has never used them for any other business type.
Strait said Protect Morgantown is not looking to ban gun sales from Morgantown or cast moral judgement on gun owners or retailers, “ … but there are special considerations that we believe we should take into account, especially with the context of Morgantown itself; its unique business environment, its demographic and population.”
