Hearts & Darts 2002
Hearts
Transportation:
A Heart goes to WVU graduate student Mike Bomford
for his "Sunnyside Greenway" proposal that would create a bicycle/walking
path connecting WVU's downtown and Evansdale campuses. Not only would
the Greenway be an important recreational and esthetic resource, but it
could help relieve traffic congestion in Sunnyside as well. Combining vision
with practical political skills, Bomford has won the support of city officials
and it appears that the Greenway will soon become a reality. The
Greenway proposal demonstrates how alternative transportation can be used
simply and inexpensively to help address traffic problems.
Also nominated for Hearts in this category were First Things First for
its tireless and effective advocacy for a transportation policy that emphasizes
the needs of downtown Morgantown, and new House of Delegates member Cindy
Frich for her unwavering dedication to promoting public involvement in
transportation planning.
Rehabilitation/Recycling
of Existing Properties:
The Heart in this category goes to architect Pete
Oliverio for the renovation of 67 Clay Street in the Wharf District.
Glenmark Corp. was developer of the project and deserves credit for giving
Oliverio a free hand in designing the rehab. The brick exterior and
original oak woodwork inside were meticulously preserved while modernizing
what had become a dilapidated eyesore. Oliverio has since bought
the property and moved his own firm into it, along with the Stiller &
Mooney law firm.
New Construction:
Feta LLC (co-owned by Parry Petroplus, Milan Puskar,
Steve Lorenze, Michael Castle and Pinion Realty Co. ) receives a Heart
for another Wharf District development, the Jackson Kelly Building on Clay
Street. This building embodies the principles of context-sensitive
design: its brick exterior and loft-style windows allow this brand-new
building (design work began in early 2001) to blend unobtrusively with
its neighbors. Paul Walker of Paradigm Architecture designed the
building.
Planning & Vision:
CRD awards a Heart to Barbara Evans Fleischauer
and Isaac Wolford for their efforts to establish a Farmland Preservation
program in Monongalia County. This is supported by a federally funded
program that encourages farm owners to put permanent development restrictions
on their properties via conservation easements. The effect
is to keep participating farmers' taxes low as well as protecting farms
against commercial development. Fleischauer, a member of the House of Delegates,
and Wolford, who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
Resources Conservation Service, were instrumental in convincing an initially
skeptical County Commission to approve participation in the program.
Friend of Smart Growth:
Jim Kotcon, a faculty member in the WVU Department
of Plant & Soil Sciences and leader of the Sierra Club's local chapter,
is CRD's choice this year for its most important award. Whenever
there's been an issue related to development and the environment, Kotcon
has been there --not only as an outspoken activist and advocate, but, even
more importantly, as an information resource to others. Kotcon is astonishingly
well informed on everything from environmental science to the fine print
of governmentregulations; and what he doesn't know, he's able to find out
quickly and reliably. Most recently, Jim has led acampaign to persuade
GenPower LLC to mitigate the toxic effluents from its proposed Longview
coal-fired electric plant.
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 "Sunnyside
Up" project that involves WVU, the city of Morgantown, developers and residents
in an effort to rehabilitate the Sunnyside neighborhood. This effort
is just getting underway but appears to be a promising effort to take a
cooperative, inclusive approach to making Sunnyside a liveable neighborhood
for students and non-students alike. Although it was disappointing that
the policy-making board of Sunnyside Up did not include any students or
ordinary neighborhood residents, CRD is hopeful that their participation
in the advisory committees will provide a meaningful role for them in the
planning process. Giving all stakeholders a voice in the visioning
and planning process will be critical to the endeavor's ultimate success.
So far it appears that Sunnyside Up's organizers agree, which CRD finds
very encouraging.
Darts
A "Heartless" Dart.goes to the Biafora brothers'
development business for their desecration of Easton Hill north of the
Morgantown airport. They turned a wooded hillside along one of the
city's main gateways into what is now a clearcut, apparently with no plan
in mind. The lack of an intelligent, context-sensitive,environmentally-friendly
design for this site might be a greater affront to our community than Wal-Mart's
proposal for a superstore on Route 705. The irresponsible development of
this site epitomizes the consequences of failed communication between a
developer and the community. A "Broken-Heart" Dart
goes to ECR Development, owners of the former Sterling Faucet site, for
turning it into a mundane fast-food-and-gasoline plaza. Last year,
CRD gave ECR its Hope for the Future award, in the belief that ECR might
use some imagination in developing the site as an esthetic, cultural and
economic asset to Morgantown. Instead, ECR chose to focus solely on its
own financial bottom line without regard for other considerations.
So another of Morgantown's major gateways will contain nothing to suggest
that the city has anything special to offer the world. The City of Morgantown
shares this Dart for failing to take any action that might have forestalled
this unnecessary tragedy. An "Unhealthy Heart"
Dart goes to the Monongalia County Board of Education for its pro-sprawl
policy of fewer, larger schools that children and staff can't walk to.
While the policy has been promoted as the only solution to intense financial
pressures on the educational system, CRD believes that schools' broader
role in the health of the community should be considered before a neighborhood
school is closed. The loss of a neighborhood school can be devastating
because the school often serves as the only center that draws students,
their families and neighbors together. Their closure not only hurts the
cohesiveness and spirit of a neighborhood, but also generates very real,
practical problems in terms of increased traffic, decreased property values
and visual blight. The fewer-larger schools policy is even destructive
of its own ends, because the loss of community creates or exacerbates
problems within the school system. In the long run, it degrades the
quality of education and the short-term financial benefits are likely to
be offset by long-term hidden costs. And, believe it or not, health
authorities now recognize that walking to and from school is physically
good for children. A "Half-Hearted" Dart goes to
the Mon County Commission for failing to move planning forward in a responsible
manner. Many residents have asked for planning, and common sense
dictates that we should have a plan given Mon County's rapid rate of growth.
Many volunteers have worked tirelessly to organize planning districts,
and the Cheat Neck Planning District has developed a comprehensive plan.
Yet, we still have nothing. The Wal-Mart controversy highlighted the county's
self-imposed inability to control development that residents overwhelmingly
don't want; it should have been a wake-up call for the commission to institute
at least some minimal oversight for major developments, but it has
continued to do nothing. Now it is faced with the GenPower
proposal. Because the companywants a tax break that the commission
must approve, the county can exert some real influence over the project.
But again the commission seems reluctant to use its power on behalf
of its constituents, failing even to bring its own Planning Commission
into the process. The recent hiring of a full-time planner is a ray of
hope, and now is the time to move forward with real planning. As
the stewards of our county, given sole authority to implement planning
by state law, and as elected officials responsive to the needs of their
constituents, the County Commission should move the planning process forward
without further delay.