Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder, right, speaks as Councilman Ben Seidler, Councilwoman Connie Cain and City Manager Robert Herron, from left, listen Tuesday night during a meeting of Wheeling City Council. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – Details about the city of Wheeling’s new Housing Development Task Force – a new effort that was announced last week during Mayor Denny Magruder’s State of the City address – were revealed during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

Officials in the city of Wheeling are expected to make new housing a top priority in the months and years ahead. In light of the WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex planned for construction and opening in the fall of 2028 in Center Wheeling, city leaders want to make sure people who will be working there have a place in the community to stay.

For people who already live in the Friendly City, housing availability is already a question for existing residents of all ages. For the next generation of young adults – whether they are originally from here or are looking to move here to start their careers or a family – much more is needed, Magruder stressed during Tuesday’s meeting

“You want the young people to come here,” he said. “You want them to be part of the community, but there are no affordable places for them to live. I’ve heard that over and over.”

Young professionals in the medical field will be looking for housing in the Wheeling area very soon.

“We want those people to live here,” Magruder said. “We have to be able to provide new upscale housing – the type that they’re used to competitively so we can welcome them here.”

Other circumstances call for the need for new housing, the mayor noted. Older residents in the community who have raised their families and are looking to downsize into smaller single-family homes or homes that do not have stairs need more housing options.

“We talk about economic development and other problems, but if we can’t house the people we expect to live and work here, then we have a major problem,” Magruder noted.

The new Housing Development Task Force will be an ad-hoc committee that will meet and be tasked with several goals for a defined time period over the course of the next several months.

“The reason we’re establishing this is to examine the barriers to constructing new housing, particularly single-family homes, and to recommend actionable strategies to increase the supply of quality, attainable housing within our city,” the mayor explained.

Goals of the task force will be to identify regulatory, financial, infrastructure and market barriers that impact new single-family housing development.

“We want to evaluate which barriers are within the city’s control of influence,” Magruder said. “We want to recommend policy changes, process improvements and incentive tools to encourage new home construction. We want to support neighborhood-compatible development and long-term community growth. We want to consider the possibilities of annexation of developed and underdeveloped areas around us, and we want to produce clear and implementable recommendations to city council.”

The scope of the task force’s work will be multifaceted, the mayor said. They will be charged with examining zoning and subdivision regulations, including lot sizes, setbacks and permitted uses. They will look at the permitting and review processes, including timelines and coordination across all departments. They will look at infrastructure capacity and conditions, especially in regard to water and sewer, stormwater, roads and hillside stabilizations. They will look at topography and floodplain constraints, including Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zones and hillside development limitations.

“We’ll look at construction costs versus achievable sales prices here in Wheeling, W.Va.,” Magruder said. “We’ll look at financing and appraisal challenges, particularly for new construction in established neighborhoods. We’re going to look at the use of more city-owned land, land bank properties and some of our infill properties in certain neighborhoods. We’re going to look at neighborhood acceptance and compatibility of new single homes, and general annexation considerations.”

The group will serve as an advisory board and will simply make recommendations to city council, which will have final say on any action that may take place in the future, the mayor noted.

“This task force will not review or approve individual development proposals,” he said. “That’s not their job. This effort is about problem-solving. By bringing together professionals with real-world experience in building, financing, planning and infrastructure, we can develop practical solutions that make it easier to build homes while protecting the character of our neighborhoods.”

Magruder did not announce specific names of the individuals from the private sector who so far have signed on to the task force, but he mentioned their related fields of expertise.

“I think there’s a pretty impressive group of people that agreed to serve on this committee,” he said.

Membership will include groups such as city officials, city council representatives – including council members Ben Seidler, Connie Cain and Ty Thorngate, local builders and developers, lenders and appraisers familiar with the Wheeling market, real estate professionals, utility providers and others.

“All members will serve in an advisory capacity,” Magruder said. “Any final decisions when they come back to council will be made by this body, city council.”

Over the course of the next several months, the task force will be expected to provide a listing of Wheeling-specific housing development barriers.

“We want some short-term recommendations such as policy or process changes that we can accommodate to help that, we want some long-term strategies including code updates, infrastructure investment incentives and maybe some state action as far as state law goes, recommendations for builders and developers and how we can recruit more of those,” Magruder said.

The task force will also identify potential annexation opportunities and potential pilot sites to be used to validate some of their findings, the mayor explained.

“This task force will begin to meet in approximately three weeks,” Magruder announced. “They’ll produce a final report to city council by Nov. 1. We’ve had a lot of great feedback. It’s exciting. I can tell you there are a lot of what I want to call high-power, really interested citizens and professionals from all of the disciplines involved. I’m really excited about this launch.”

Seidler thanked the mayor for his leadership in getting the new Housing Development Task Force established for the city of Wheeling.

“I think this is going to be a great thing for our community,” Seidler said. “I’m honored to be a part of it. I think it’s well-needed here, and I think it’s going to go a long way. I’m looking forward to participating.”