There are plenty of things in the city of Wheeling that make it attractive for people to move here. Recreation is a gift, with places like Wheeling Park and Oglebay Park Resort to visit. There are great schools, both public and private, that will help children achieve.

But there’s one big thing of which Wheeling is in short supply, a sizable hurdle that can serve as a deterrent for people to become part of the community: a lack of new and affordable housing.

Combining those words “new” and “affordable” is important. In Wheeling, new housing is rarely affordable for young families. Affordable housing is almost never new. Young families that enter Wheeling find a housing market where, for the most part, turnkey homes are way out of their price range. Homes in their price range are older and come with an array of improvement projects that will turn those homes from affordable to expensive very quickly.

It has been discussed in this space many times that Wheeling and the rest of the Ohio Valley must find ways to regrow a population that has been shrinking for years. New, affordable housing is one of the keys to solving that problem.

Wheeling city officials agree with that assessment and are now trying to do something about it. At his State of the City Address, Mayor Denny Magruder announced that the city would create a Housing Development Task Force. He offered more details at the last Wheeling City Council meeting, saying that the Friendly City is about to hit a crisis point in attracting younger residents.

“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.

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

“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 is absolutely correct. If the city wants to complete tasks like boosting economic development, the first steps come from making it attractive for young professionals to call Wheeling home.

According to Magruder, this task force won’t leave a stone unturned. It will look at zoning and subdivision regulations, including lot sizes, setbacks and permitted uses. It will examine the permitting and review processes, including timelines and coordination across all departments. It will look at infrastructure capacity and conditions, especially in regard to water and sewer, stormwater, roads and hillside stabilizations. It also will research topography and floodplain constraints, including Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zones and hillside development limitations.

All of these components ­– and more ­– are crucial in cracking the code to more affordable new housing. The task force members won’t be decision-makers. They’ll be advisors with a wealth of experience in fields directly connected to housing. The decisions will be left to the city council, but the task force is just what the council needs — a group of experts who can counsel city officials about how to remove barriers to success.

This task force can be one of Wheeling City Council’s most valuable assets, as long as city officials recruit the right people to join and, when they offer their informed, expert opinions, council members truly listen and avoid dismissing their recommendations as too ambitious or too out-of-the-box. If city officials simply become a party of “no” with this task force, then it will all be just a waste of everyone’s time.

Yet there is no time to waste. Wheeling’s population isn’t getting any bigger or younger. There are obvious solutions available, and this task force can do much to bring the city closer to those solutions.

If this task force is successful, it can be one of the lasting legacies Magruder can leave as mayor, an example of him moving the city of Wheeling into the future. There’s no reason to wait. It’s time to get to work.