MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Morgantown city council will continue the evaluation process for the possibility of a nuisance ordinance. .
Members of the Greenmont neighborhood brought concerns to council members about increasing criminal behavior and abandoned structures.
Greenmont resident Adelheid Schaupp owns several properties in the neighborhood and likes the close proximity to downtown. But, Schaupp says over the last several months the problems in downtown have seeped into their neighborhood.
“This goes from anything from loitering to vagrancy, addiction, theft and the presence of needles,”Schaupp said,”All of these things have spilled directly into our neighborhood.”
Bill King and his wife recently moved back to Morgantown and decided to settle in Greenmont because of the business community and affordability. King says he’s happy in Greenmont, but they quickly learned there were problems in the neighborhood.
“In our short amount of time back we’ve witnessed a number of ongoing drug deals, everyday, overdoses, animal abuses and others crimes,”King said,”And a considerable amount of squatting that we have reported.”
The proposal from the neighborhood members targets unsafe properties that enable, criminal activity or become an attractive nuisance to children, vagrants or drug users.
The neighborhood group met with members of the ACLU and Our Future West Virginia and agreed to remove domestic violence, gambling and prostitution as offenses that could trigger a landlord citation.
Mollie Kennedy is the community outreach director for the West Virginia ACLU and shes the ordinances increase homeless numbers and don’t help people.
“We can talk about what good public policy is that addresses theses issues and we’re happy to continue to do that,”Kennedy said,”But, at the end of the day nuisance ordinances, drug house ordinances, whatever you want to call them are bad policy and they hurt people.”
Morgantown police chief Ed Preston told council members there so many vacant properties he doesn’t have enough officers to properly monitor them. Preston said most of the serious violations are in the same properties owned by absent or out-of-state ordinances. Preston urged councilors to look at all existing ordinances before passing a new measure and offered an idea.
“My personal opinion is, instead of imposing a fine against the landlord, you impose that fine against the property and at such point the fine becomes higher than the property value,”Preston said,”The it’s taken over by the city or municipality.”