MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The City of Morgantown is looking to establish an agency that aims to preserve land for reuse.
During Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole, Morgantown City Council discussed a proposal which would establish the Morgantown Land Reuse and Preservation Agency. The proposed agency would have the ability to determine how land would be developed in the future.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us,” said Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake. “It’s really a watershed moment looking at fully implementing a green space plan and providing the financial structure to enable that.”
The proposed agency would consists of a board that would include appointments by Morgantown City Council and volunteers. Brake suggested a board could include members that have experience in real estate transactions, development of commercial or residential property, public land establishment, and land preservation and managment programs.
The agency would also follow in accordance to the West Virginia Land Reuse Agency Authorization Act and the Morgantown Land Preservation Program, Brake said. Both of these, working in conjunction, would allow the agency to purchase land and leverage funds to acquire properties through various means, including through proposing levies.
They will also have the authority to zone certain lands accordingly in order to uphold the initiative set forth by the Preservation Program. Brake said it would make land acquisition, similar to the highly controversial and recently postponed Haymaker Forest purchase, much more attainable.
“To have that board contemplate that revenue source that could help fund for acquisition, but really to leverage dollars from many different sources so it would not be a sole source to help pay for the acquisition or debt service towards purchasing such property,” Brake said.
When discussing how this agency will be funded, a few possibilities were tossed around. Among them: a 2 to 4 percent tax levy, which if passed through a public vote, would be one of multiple sources that could be used.
Brake, basing his knowledge of agencies like this from prior experience, said that the agency will still need private donations in order to run properly, but under the WV Land Resuse Agency Act, more oportunities for these funds — inlcuding some on the state and federal level == will be available.
“There are funds available through the forestry service and USDA and other programs like that, and we look at utilizing and maximizing them as much as possible,” Brake said.
Brake isn’t entering this blindly, either. He helped pioneer a similar agency at his last stop in Michigan.
“It can work here,” he said. “If there is support to move that forward, there are checks and balances in place, that protects the fiduciary responsibility the city has, but at the same time that we’re able to promote the overall objectives that we’re trying to achieve with equal balance of economic opportunites and the environment.”
Brake said Council will likely address this issue in the near future.