Hearts & Darts 2001

Transportation


Hearts:     A Heart goes to West Virginia University for arranging free Mountain Line bus service for all students, faculty and staff this year.  This is a major,concrete step that addresses the community's number one problem, automobile traffic, at its source.   WVU is showing real leadership by encouraging its students and employees to get out of their cars.     Also nominated for Hearts in this category were the state Division of Highways, for denying access on Route 705 for the proposed Wal-Mart superstore; and First Things First, for promoting improvements of existing roads and prompting a re-evaluation of the area's current, faulty transportation plan.
Darts:     The proposal to extend Interstate 68 to Moundsville receives a Dart, as another example of a colossally expensive, disruptive highway development that will benefit only a few people.
 

Mixed-Use Development


Hearts:     CRD recognizes the Daily Kneads bakery on Brockway Avenue with a Heart, for showing beautifully how a business can not only coexist with but enhance a surrounding residential community.  It provides important services within walking distance for much of its clientele.     Runners-up included the former Loving Furniture building along the downtown riverfront, which converted an empty warehouse into (temporarily) a vibrant art gallery and now loft-style housing; and Mario's Fishbowl and its recent offshoot, Crosley's restaurant.
Darts:     There were no Darts in this category.
 

Rehabilitation/Recycling of Existing Properties
Hearts:     The Heart in this category goes to the Warner Theater.  Nothing says "depressed downtown" like a vacant movie house, which the Warner was before it was rescued by its current owners.  The marquee lights and the foot traffic have put a new, bright face on that end of High Street, and more important, give more people a reason to come downtown in the evening.
    Other nominees included restaurateur Elias Hishmeh (Mediterranean Deli) for his continuing investment in downtown; the Botanic Garden; the Grand Central Station office development; the Mon River/Decker's Creek Rail Trail; and the Wharf District.  All of these are good examples of how existing developed property can be re-used in ways that make life better for the whole community.
Darts:     Lowe's receives a Dart for its policy of abandoning buildings when it decides to expand.  Its former space at Morgantown Mall has no permanent occupant, while its even older facility in Sabraton has only just obtained a new tenant after years of standing empty.
 
New Construction
Hearts:     The City of Morgantown wins a Heart for the Riverfront Park, which promises to be an increasingly important recreational and cultural asset to the community.     Also deserving positive mention is the new Sabraton post office, for perpetuating the tradition of locating post offices within neighborhoods rather than in outlying areas that require customers to drive.Darts:     A Dart goes to the Glenmark Center, the retail complex near I-68 Exit 7.  It exemplifies nearly everything wrong with unplanned, big-box development: the requirement that people drive to it, the artless cookie-cutter designs, its negative economic impact on other businesses and other parts of the community.  Just last month we learned that the downtown Hallmark store is closing, in large part because of business drained away to the chain's Glenmark location.  This category proved to be competitive for Darts.  The Sterling University Ridge Collegiate Residences (the new, oversize student apartment complex now under construction off Van Voorhis Road) also was considered for a Dart.  CRD doesn't object to new housing facilities per se, but rather to putting major new traffic generators where they're inaccessible by foot or bike or bus.  The result will be yet more car traffic and, ultimately, new demands for road "improvements."
 
Media
Hearts:  Reporter Jeff Young at West Virginia Public Radio gets a Heart, in recognition of his fair and objective reporting on sensitive, complex issues related to development.  CRD also commends Rob Gatian for his efforts to promote smart growth through his Internet site, www.morgantowns.com.
Darts:     There was no Dart in this category.
 
Planning & Vision


Hearts:     CRD awards a Heart to developer Mac Warner for his sweeping proposal to reshape the Falling Run area.  Not only does this area desperately need rehabilitation, but Warner's approach suggests that he genuinely understands smart-growth principles: seeking community input, coordinating with other stakeholders, and encouraging non-car transportation.  Also deserving recognition is Star City for its efforts to develop its waterfrontfor recreation and the biking-hiking trail corridor.  It's heartwarming to see a small community using its resources to support a project that benefits the entire area, not just its own residents.
Darts:  WVU earns a Dart for its secretive, unilateral plans for Sunnyside and the downtown campus.  In Sunnyside, the university has been quietly buying up properties, but it has said little about what its overall intentions are, other than to build parking lots.  WVU has thus far formed whatever plans it has without significant consultation with the city or its commercial and residential neighbors.  WVU's secretiveness is likely to put the university at cross purposes with the rest of the community.
 

Friend of Smart Growth


Hearts:     Jim Wood, Morgantown city planner, receives CRD's biggest Heart.  He has shown much courage in sharing his commitment to smart-growth principles at community meetings and other venues, principles that may put him at odds with some of his bosses in city government.  In the short time he has been here, the number of variances and conditional-use permits has declined by 75%, evidence that he is serious about enforcing our zoning regulations, and he is spearheading a muchneeded overhaul of the city's zoning ordinance, and doing it the right way with public meetings as the first step.  Also deserving accolade: County Commissioner John Pyles, who has been an important voice for community values at the county level, where the battle  against sprawl will be won or lost; Jim Kotcon of the local Sierra Club chapter, an articulate spokesman on the environmental and economic costs of sprawl; and WVU graduate student Mike Bomford, who has emerged as an effective and creative advocate for bicycle transportation in Morgantown.
 

Hope for the Future


     This category highlights projects still in the formative stage, that have the potential to enhance community values -- or to degrade them.  This year, CRD draws attention to the former Sterling Faucet site in Sabraton, a longstanding eyesore that will require significant investment before it can be used for anything.  ECR Investment Group, a local company, has committed to making that investment and taking the associated financial risk, for which we applaud them.  There are a number of ways in which this rescued property could be redeveloped.  If it's devoted to gas stations, fast-food restaurants and other standardized "highway services," that might offer ECR a quick return on its investment and provide some new tax dollarsfor local government.  But otherwise the larger community would not get much benefit from the property.  CRD would like to encourage ECR to think more expansively, to give the community an attractive gateway and a cultural as well as economic asset.  CRD believes the community would embrace such an approach and support it materially, helping ECR achieve greater profits over the long run.     Another trend that CRD would like to encourage is WVU cooperating with local communities on planning and development issues.  This is already happening with WVU academic units, such as an ongoing project under which university faculty and students are helping the city of Westover draft a comprehensive plan.  CRD sees this sort of relationship as a model for expanded WVU participation and interaction in community affairs.