MORGANTOWN — The suggestions ranged from the practical – like trash cans, lights and restrooms – to the, let’s say, more adventurous – think ziplines, climbing and bungee jumping.
And they were all jotted down Monday afternoon as a group of 19 community planning and landscape architecture students held a public visioning session at the Historic Train Depot in the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park.
The students will be tasked over the next two to three weeks with putting together a handful of options to better utilize the space along the Deckers Creek Trail beneath Morgantown’s South High Street Bridge.
Professor of Landscape Architecture and Extension Specialist Peter Butler said he met with representatives from the city and Main Street Morgantown in the fall about their desire for added amenities at the bridge site as well as the riverfront park area.
“So this meeting is about getting a deeper understanding from local folks to help the students understand the programming of the site, the character of the site, the potential new functions and connectivity of the site, and then take that information and create design visualizations,” Butler said. “So, at the end of the project, we’ll have five or six concept plans that we can then share with Main Street Morgantown and all the stakeholders that are here, Friends of Deckers Creek, etc., and get their input and hopefully then develop a final concept plan that could be feasible and fundable, which is always the goal.”
A known hurdle for development along that stretch is making people feel comfortable and safe.
In April 2024, the Morgantown Riverfront Revitalization Task Force conducted a community survey in which 73 of 119 respondents said loitering and other unwanted activity along the downtown trails impacted their use of the riverfront area.
As it did in that survey, “safety” was a word that came up time and again on Monday.
“The design has to meet the bar and be over the threshold of enough traffic so people feel safe, which means it’s enough traffic that it’s not a desirable spot in the shadows anymore,” one participant said. “It has to come out of the shadows.”
Morgantown Green Team Chair Jim Kotcon said the entire expanded riverfront area is one of the city’s most valuable assets.
“When I arrived, the whole riverfront was decrepit warehouses and run-down businesses,” Kotcon said. “Morgantown has come a long way in helping develop that waterfront. That’s always been a premier amenity to a city like ours. Additional opportunities to take advantage of that would be very helpful.”
