Rail-Trail Conservancy
Morgantown Dominion Post
11 April 2014
EDITORIAL
Agreement starts with a single step
Rail-trail conservancy, area residents should meet to allay
concerns about development
Some may be thinking, never the twain shall meet. That expression
describes when two things or people are so different that they can
never exist together or agree with each other. Next week, at a
meeting of the West Run Planning District’s Board of Zoning
Appeals (BZA), it might even be said. Or more to the point, never
the trail shall meet. An initiative by the Mon River Trails
Conservancy (MRTC) to create a trail head at a 2.8 acre site on
Van Voorhis Road once looked to be a walk in the park. However, it
now appears a number of nearby property owners are not in step
with this plan. MRTC’s plan calls for a large gravel parking lot,
a path to a ramp on the Monongahela River for non-motorized boats
and a non-plumbed toilet facility. A nearby small, existing paved
parking lot will be striped, and include designated spaces for
handicapped use. The county planner has recommended approval of a
conditional use permit for this plan, which is required to build a
parking lot without a business.
We recommend the West Run Planning District’s BZA grant this
permit. Some residents favor the trail and the trail head’s
parking lot, but no development of any other amenities at that
site, including a restroom. Other residents are none too happy
with the trail, period. One home owner in this area recently said,
“I’ll tell you the truth, I’d rather have the train back.”
Apparently, a host of residents plan to take issue with some or
all aspects of developing this trail head at the BZA’s meeting
Wednesday. In the interim, the MRTC should reach out to these
residents and heed their concerns one step at a time. Perhaps,
approach the Monongalia County Sheriff ’s Department about adding
regular patrols of this trail head. Then provide these residents
with contact information to reach MRTC leaders. Promise additional
signage at the trail head about the ground rules for parking there
and using its facilities. If possible, provide some lighting at
this trail head, too. The concerns of these residents about this
trail head and the rail trail, in general, are valid and are
nothing new in residential areas. Development in anyone’s backyard
is rarely met with open arms. However, if developers —MRTC, in
this instance — work through nearby residents’ concerns, most
differences can often be readily resolved. The network of
rail-trails in our county has been a blessing and a boon to
recreational opportunities, and economic ones, as well. Maybe it
would be better said to never say never the twain shall meet on
this trail.