MORGANTOWN — After years as a popular talking point, Morgantown Director of Development Services Chris Fletcher said the city is ready to walk the walk when it comes to pedestrian infrastructure.
The Morgantown Planning Commission took a step in that direction on Thursday, voting to recommend the removal of sidewalk development standards from the city’s planning and zoning in favor of placement in Article 913 of Morgantown City Code.
Fletcher explained that the planning and zoning requirements are reactive in that new sidewalks are only developed as part of new construction or considerable reconstruction.
“This leaves gaps between new and existing sidewalk facilities or new sidewalks within a corridor lacking any sidewalks at all,” Fletcher said, pointing to Earl Core Road as an example. “We’ve got a lot of new sidewalk down there, but you’ll walk on a sidewalk, then you’ll walk on the berm until you get to the next new development.”
He said city staff has developed a five point approach, which includes:
- Development and utilization of a prioritization score to fund sidewalk construction based on need and use.
- Retain an on-call contractor to build sidewalks along priority corridors where residents cannot or will not pay the up front cost of sidewalk construction.
- Retain adjoining property owner responsibility to clear snow and ice from sidewalks.
- Establish a utility permitting process for work in the right of way and establish districts, like downtown or the Wharf, where utilities must be below ground.
The development services office is working with the city engineer’s office to develop a prioritization system. The higher the priority score, the more likely the city will be willing to invest in pedestrian infrastructure. If a new development occurs along a priority corridor, it too will be required to invest in sidewalk construction under the standards established in 913.
Because the city likely won’t be able to initially invest in sharing the cost of sidewalk construction on lower priority corridors, Fletcher said it may be possible for new developments to contribute a percentage of anticipated sidewalk construction costs to a pedestrian improvements fund.
Fletcher said the money to fund these pedestrian improvements will be considered in the upcoming budgeting process and will likely come out of money generated by the city’s weekly user fee.
“We’ve always known that once we get caught up with the paving and maintenance of streets, we’ll then transition that investment to our sidewalks and pedestrian ways,” Fletcher said. “We’re there almost. I think we’re probably a paving season away.”
Commissioner Tim Stranko said the move is overdue.
“It’s well past time for the city to start investing in pedestrian facilities. Like we spend money on moving cars, we should be spending money on moving people, too,” Stranko said.
In other news from Thursday’s meeting, Fletcher said an interactive city zoning map should be available online in the next couple weeks.
He said the city’s GIS Analyst, Marvin Davis, was integral in building the map, which will allow users to search for addresses to find zoning and tax district information.
The city is working with the county to integrate parcel tax map numbers and generally better align the two systems.
Lastly, the commission voted to retain Peter DeMasters as the body’s president and Carol Pyles as its vice president.
