MORGANTOWN — Katie See knows the importance of a good plan.
And well she should.
The West Virginia native spent 14 years working as a city planner in Charles Town, Clearwater, Fla. and the Charlotte area.
On Thursday, she was on the other side of the process — one of 50 or so residents in a Morgantown Event Center making her voice heard as part of the city’s comprehensive planning process.
State code mandates cities update their comprehensive plans every 10 years. Thursday was the first opportunity for public input as the city puts together the roadmap it will use to navigate the next decade.
The city hired consulting firm Rhodeside & Harwell to assist with the months-long process. Ron Sessoms is the project manager.
“This sets community goals and guides decision making — goals that are developed by understanding what the vision of the community is,” Sessoms explained. “That’s why meetings like tonight are so important, because we get an opportunity to get your views and use what we hear to influence the recommendations in the plan.”
Sessoms and his team opened the session by laying out where Morgantown is today — both the benefits and the challenges.
The city offers top quality educational opportunities at every level. It has proud, historic and largely walkable neighborhoods, miles of green space and a strong sense of community.
It’s also dominated by a university that owns 29% of its land and some 23% of the property in the community.
And it’s dealing with an aging housing stock and an explosion of growth in its periphery. Between 2002 and 2019, the number of people working within one mile of the city’s boundary jumped 43%.
After the opening presentation, attendees made their way to various stations, weighing in on topics like parks/open space, housing and equitability, economic development, land use and transportation.
Like See, Paige Wantlin was engaged in the process on multiple levels.
As a graduate student seeking a Masters of Public Administration with an emphasis on community development, Wantlin said she was excited to see the comprehensive planning process in action firsthand.
But as a Morgantown resident, she had a couple issues she would like to see addressed — primarily walkability and housing.
“As a student, one of the biggest issues for me is the lack of affordable housing. It can be difficult to find quality, affordable housing,” Wantlin said. “Since I moved into my apartment three years ago, my rent has gone up twice. It continues to go up every single year.”
A second public input session, this one virtual, will be held from 10 a.m.- noon on Saturday.
To register for that meeting, learn more about the planning process or take an online survey, visit morgantownwv.gov/652/Morgantown-2033
As for Thursday, Morgantown Director of Development Services Rickie Yeager said he was thrilled with the turnout.
“People are engaged, and that’s the exciting part,” Yeager said, noting there will be opportunities beyond Saturday for public engagement.
“Our consultants are going to go back and summarize everything that we’ve heard so far, and with that they’ll start laying out a draft plan. Once that draft is available, we’ll come back and present the components of that plan to get more feedback from the community and develop it further.”
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