MORGANTOWN — “Action, not accolades.”
As a candidate for the 6th Ward seat on Morgantown City Council, Stephanie Hunt said she believes leadership is about leaving your ego at home and getting to work.
That, she said, is what she plans to do if city voters choose her to represent the city’s 6th Ward on April 29.
“We need leadership that is all about collaboration, and my whole campaign is about expanding what leadership looks like. I’ve never focused on titles or recognition. I don’t care who gets the credit. I want results,” she said. “You talk to people about different things, and they’ll say they’ve known about all these different issues for years and years because they know the city well. But if that knowledge isn’t leading to action, what’s the value of just knowing a problem exists?”
A small business owner and co-chair of the Greenmont Neighborhood Association, Hunt, 32, said she believes there’s too much red tape when it comes to the city’s permitting process. She also feels like the city’s zoning code makes it difficult for neighborhoods to develop any sense of character or community.
“I’ve heard from people who want to open a coffee shop, fix up a home, open a small grocery store, and they get stuck navigating city regulations that don’t reflect how our neighborhoods want to function or how businesses actually start and grow,” she said, pointing to her neighborhood of Greenmont as an example.
“We have businesses like Quantum Bean and they thrive with only a few parking spaces because they focus on serving a walkable community. Under our current rules, a new business like that wouldn’t be allowed. So, that’s not serving us,” She said. “Many of our favorite spots here, if they closed they could never open again. Gene’s, for example, is grandfathered in. We’ve zoned a business like that out of existence.”
Hunt said she believes there are unnecessary regulatory hurdles in place that also hamper the city’s ability to go after the affordable housing it both wants and needs.
“We know we’re running out of space to grow outward, so we need to support smart, small-scale development within, and this means adaptive reuse, mixed-use zoning and infill housing. That’s how we’re going to make Morgantown affordable without losing what makes it feel like home.”
Hunt said she believes homeowners often give up on property improvements, and landlords often end up delaying repairs and upkeep because of the permitting process.
“The process is more complicated and costly than it needs to be. When you have people saying they’re waiting months for a permit to build a fence, why? There’s these little things slipping through the cracks, and I think they’re holding our neighborhoods back from thriving in the way they could be,” she said.
On the topic of roads, Hunt believes city-maintained roads aren’t getting the long-term attention they deserve, as evidenced by known problem spots that pop up year after year.
As for state-maintained routes, Hunt says it’s clear Morgantown isn’t prioritized — even though its state roads “carry more economic weight than most of the roads in the entire state.”
“I’m not here to point fingers. I’m here to get results. That’s going to mean building stronger relationships, fighting for fair funding and pushing for lasting infrastructure repairs, not just temporary patches all the time,” she said.
When asked about a couple of council’s recent hot-button issues, Hunt says she doesn’t believe trying to coerce people into utilizing resources through a camping ban is an effective long-term strategy.
She says the question of whether the city should keep its standalone election or move inline with the county should be answered by the city’s voters, not city council.
So, why should you vote for Stephanie Hunt for Morgantown City Council?
“Leadership is about collaboration, not ego. We need to take ego out of the equation. I think that’s where we keep butting heads with the county. I think that’s where we keep butting heads with the state. We need collaboration. I’m making progress in that field on the ground. I want to bring that same momentum to city hall,” she said. “I’m young. I bring a fresh perspective, the energy to act and the commitment to see things through. Some of these things will take time. Others, we can start right now. I’m ready to put in the work for the long haul.”
