WHEELING - Whether to allow temporary trailer camps in limited areas of Wheeling will be among the first votes cast by the city's two incoming councilmen, Ken Imer and David Miller.
And two weeks after hearing from residents on both sides of a controversial stop sign issue on Valley View Avenue, they and their new colleagues will decide whether they believe the sign is the best answer to neighborhood concerns over motorists speeding on that street. City Council is set to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the third-floor courtroom at West Virginia Independence Hall, located at the corner of 16th and Market streets.
Because the amendment to Wheeling's existing ordinance concerning trailer camps involves updating licensing fees, Tuesday's proceedings will open with a public hearing, during which residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on the proposed change. The amendment would allow camps under the following conditions: the property must be zoned I-2 Industrial, be 1 acre or larger and divided into units no smaller than 1,200 square feet, comply with floodplain regulations and have adequate access roads, water and electricity and sewage and garbage disposal.
Current law forbids establishing new temporary camps within city limits, and council hasn't updated fees for such facilities since 1955. Under the plan now before council, the license fee would increase from $2 per rental unit to $750, and the fee to transfer a permit would increase from $10 to $100.
Areas in Wheeling zoned I-2 include parcels at the north end of Warwood; along the Ohio River between North 20th Street and Garden Park; the area around Centre Foundry; a strip of land along River Road; much of Fulton and the area along Rock Point Road; in South Wheeling from Interstate 470 south to 37th Street; and along the Ohio River from 38th Street to the city's southern boundary. Not all of those areas contain property that would satisfy all the proposed rules, however.
At its last meeting, council voted to table an ordinance calling for new stop signs creating a four-way stop on Valley View Avenue at its intersection with Biltmore Avenue and Betty Street. That decision came after two residents of that street spoke in favor of the sign, but fellow resident Randy Berisford questioned whether it would solve the speeding problem, or simply increase congestion on a narrow street.
Council also will vote on another traffic rule tabled June 19 which would add a no-parking zone on Gaewood Avenue.
In other business, council will vote on spending a total of $306,842 with seven different companies for various chemicals for the Water Treatment Plant, and providing $17,500 to the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce in support of the 2012 City of Lights Festival.
