WESTOVER — Westover City Council on Monday adopted ordinances creating a limited “pilot” urban archery deer hunt and expanding the city’s riverfront industrial zoning district.
The industrial zone expansion will essentially return the district to its original footprint prior to a zoning change enacted in the early 2000s in an effort to bring a riverfront hotel to the area.
The request was made by businesses in the enhanced zone, including Vance River Terminal, which needs to be in an industrial zone to be able to leverage grant dollars tied to the Monongahela River’s new marine highway M79 designation.
The zoning change passed 6-1 on first reading Aug. 5 with Councilor Duane Tater casting the lone vote against.
Prior to Monday’s vote, an amendment was passed removing heavy manufacturing and heavy industrial as possible uses in the expanded zone.
The amended ordinance passed unanimously.
“What I didn’t like about it when it first came to us is that ‘industrial,’ the way we had it written, was all types of industrial, and that included factories, plants, mills, whatever they wanted to put down there,” Tatar said.
“It’s too close to the residential areas for all that. So, with this amendment, you can’t put a mill or a large factory in there, but they can continue with the types of business that are down there now and expand them to get some of this grant money.”
In other news, council finalized adoption of what’s being called an initial pilot year of urban archery hunting.
That vote went 6-1 with Randy Barnett voting in the minority, just as he did on first reading.
Hunt co-coordinator Benjamin May explained the initial hunt will include five locations — three in isolated areas of Westover Park, one on a parcel of privately owned land described as “a sizable piece of property in the West Park area,” and one on an elevated piece of MUB land near a radio tower.
“These are key areas where I’ve seen deer concentrated. We’ve walked through four of these areas so far and they can certainly be hunted,” May said, explaining the hunters will not only be limited to these properties, but instructed on which specific tree they must hunt from.
Lastly, council voted 5-2 to provide up to $5,000 for a city Christmas tree lighting and festival to be held at the Morgantown Mall.
Councilors Tatar and Mark Gall voted in the minority.
