MORGANTOWN – For more than two years now, the Morgantown Land Reuse and Preservation Agency has largely focused its efforts on acquiring property along Pennsylvania Avenue in lower Greenmont.
It’s nearly ready to put some of that property on the market.
During its most recent meeting, the agency voted to move forward with an appraisal, survey and environmental site assessment of 1.3 contiguous acres starting at the convergence of Pennsylvania and Deckers Creek avenues.
The data will be part of a prospectus that can be shopped around to potential developers with the parallel goals of improving both the depth and diversity of the city’s housing stock, and the look and feel of lower Greenmont.
LRPA Chair Jessica McDonald said the property will be priced to move to the right developer.
“I think part of the reason that developers aren’t building affordable/attainable housing is that land here is very expensive, and working in the city comes with a lot of extra requirements. It’s more profitable for them to build outside city limits and focus on higher-end models where the profit margin is bigger,” McDonald said. “We are hoping that by offering this land at a discount and eliminating some of the permitting hurdles in advance, we can entice a developer who can understand and execute our vision.”
That vision includes greenspace.
In April, Morgantown Director of Engineering and Public Works Damien Davis presented BOPARC with the latest conceptual rendering of a future Greenmont park that will stretch from a new pedestrian bridge at the split of Brockway and Pennsylvania avenues right up to the property the LRPA is putting on the market.
The park design largely draws on the property’s natural creekside setting, enhanced with a compacted stone path, picnic tables, art installations, a small performance space, and multiple waterside approaches for fishing and lounging.
“We primarily want to maintain the character of the existing neighborhood with this new build and showcase and capitalize on the greenspace and recreation assets nearby, including the rail-trail, the new greenspace, and the new pump track BOPARC is building across the creek,” McDonald said.
According to McDonald, the LRPA doesn’t have a specific number of units in mind.
“The piece of land is under two acres, so we will be looking for one developer. We are going to be setting some non-negotiables in the prospectus that we have to see in the project, and then also probably a wish list of other aspects we would like to have,” she said. “And then we will solicit proposals and see what we get. We want to try to make something truly attractive and highly functional where people will genuinely want to live.”
