MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A land purchase agreement for 105 acres of land near the Morgantown Municipal Airport and a grant application for a $375,000 pedestrian bridge have been approved by Morgantown City Council.
A first reading of the ordinance that authorizes the land purchase for $1,572,450 was approved unanimously by council at their regular meeting Tuesday night. The agreement will transfer ownership of the land from the James L. Laurita Sr. Family Limited Partnership to the city, which plans to continue development of the airport’s runway extension project with a portion of the land.
“This is absolutely fabulous news, and we super appreciate everyone’s work on this,” said Morgantown Mayor Jenny Selin ahead of her ‘yes’ vote. “We want to be a forward-thinking city, and this is one really good way to do that,” she said.
The agreement accounts for land that is located south of the Morgantown Municipal Airport runway and ends just north of the Sabraton Hill Baptist Church. The contract was made as part of an all-or-nothing offer from the Laurita Family Limited Partnership to the city and was accepted by council with ideas to develop beyond the runway extension. Morgantown Municipal Airport Director Jonathan Vrabel expects a significant amount of land in the agreement to be available for development after the runway extension project is completed.
“A portion of this land is needed immediately for the runway extension project,” said Vrabel of the land purchased by the city. “The additional property is for future extensions of the runway, future development of airport property, and keeping our airport rolling for our community,” he said.
The city also approved the application for a State Department of Transportation (DOT) grant valued at $375,000 to help build a connector bridge in the Seventh Ward for recreational trails around Burris Run and West Run. The bridge would connect Eastern Avenue and Flagel Street and would allow for trail access secured in an agreement between the city and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The application will be submitted for grants allocated towards the DOT’s Recreational Trails Program and would require a twenty percent match by the city towards completion.
“It basically uses a ‘paper straight’ or right-of-way between Eastern Avenue and Flagel Street,” said Morgantown City Manager Emily Muzzarelli on the proposed bridge if the application is approved. “With the ultimate goal being that this would help connect to the newly acquired easements on the NETL property,” she said.
Changes to the City of Morgantown’s vacant structure code were also approved unanimously by council. A multi-tier system based on the state of the structure and the amount of time it has been vacant will be established that will include fines for owners of vacant structures that are not maintained within city limits. Structures accounted for in the city’s vacant building registry will be required to go through a compliance determination by the Morgantown Fire Chief or Building Official. Any problems discovered in the inspection are required to be fixed or face various fines of up to $500 each.
“If a letter of compliance is secured by the property owner, they will pay a flat rate of $100,” said Morgantown Director of Development Services Rickie Yeager. “If they don’t secure that because there are property maintenance issues or life safety issues, then they would be on the escalated fee schedule,” he said.