Morgantown to streamline vacant‑structure exemption process; staff report to become default decision absent hearing request

Attorney Simonton and staff presented proposed revisions to the city’s vacant‑structure code and the council’s exemption procedures on Sept. 30. The changes are intended to streamline a process that council and owners have criticized as time‑consuming and costly.

Simonton said West Virginia statutory authority for the vacant‑structure program (noted in the transcript as West Virginia 38‑12‑16(c)) requires a mechanism for exemptions when a structure cannot be occupied through no fault of the owner. Under the proposed revisions staff would prepare an exemption report, deliver the report to the property owner and to council, and the report would become the decision unless a council member or the property owner requests a hearing within a prescribed period.

Staff told council that the change is meant to reduce multiple public hearings for routine exemption requests after the city adopted a standardized $100 per‑year registration fee for non‑dilapidated vacant structures. The revised procedures would preserve the right of council or the owner to request a hearing but would make administrative decisions faster where a hearing is not sought.

Council members agreed to place the ordinance and revised procedures on a future agenda for formal consideration. No ordinance was adopted at the Committee of the Whole; staff will present the ordinance and the updated exemption procedure for council action at a later meeting.