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Signs of progress are blooming throughout Wheeling. With that progress and rebirth comes the responsibility to set forth an official plan for the future, and the first step toward that took place Monday at West Virginia Northern Community College.
The city's 10-year Comprehensive Plan is in the process of being refreshed and must be submitted for approval later this year. The plan helps guide land use and helps steer growth and development in the city. The Comprehensive Plan focuses on revitalization and reinvestment in public spaces, business districts and neighborhoods.
This is an especially important time for this to be happening, as there has been much change since the plan's last update in 2014. More people are living downtown, for example, and the Center Wheeling business district is undergoing a major transformation right now with the demolition of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center complex to make way for a new WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital regional cancer center.
South Wheeling has seen the beginnings of a refresh with new living options from Woda Cooper, along with many other changes citywide since 2014.
To make the new plan work, though, the public's input is essential.
"We really want to bring folks in at the ground level so they can really be a part of creating and crafting the plan," said city Building & Planning Director B.J. Delbert. "We're more likely to get a call to action that way when people have some buy-in and want to be part of the change, and we can all move forward together."
Helping the city with the plan is evolve: Environment & Architecture of Pittsburgh.
One of the groups in attendance Monday to help start the discussion on Wheeling's future was the Friends of Wheeling. Jeanne Finstein discussed the city's assets, from its public and private schools to the Wheeling Nailers, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Oglebay Resort, Wheeling Park and more, and how better to get the message of these community treasures to those already here and also outside our region. She also noted the city's history has to be part of its future.
"We're tired of hearing 'there aren't any stores downtown -- there aren't any people working downtown,'" Finstein said. "There are actually more people working downtown now than there were when there were a lot of stores downtown. But people don't appreciate that."
She's right. It's important the city capitalizes on that particularly as the Downtown Streetscape nears completion over the next 18 months.
There are three more public sessions to attend, along with online surveys the city will be releasing. There's no excuse to not get involved -- if you desire a new direction for Wheeling, or a new focus for the future, then be part of the process of making it happen.
Big changes are coming in Wheeling. We'll have a new mayor this summer and at least two new members of City Council. The downtown continues to be remade with new living options, and the northern gateway coming out of the Wheeling Tunnel is set for a transformation. There's a lot to like about what's happening in Wheeling right now -- but the public must be involved in setting forth a new path to the future. Get involved.