Occupancy limited by square footage in some districts

The Morgantown City Council passed an ordinance during Tuesday's meeting changing family-unit requirements for occupancy in R-2 and R-3 residential districts, such as downtown and Sunnyside, to a square-footage requirement.

The new ordinance creates square footage requirements for bedrooms, bathrooms and common spaces to determine the number of persons allowed to occupy a unit.

This ordinance is a companion to the previous ordinance redefining the term family in the city's code meant to limit the number of rental units in R-1 and R-1A residential neighborhoods, said Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne.

"As opposed to saying a group can live in there if they are family, people can now live in there if there is the correct number of square feet," Byrne said.

Byrne said while these ordinances were passed while many students were not in town, that the matters have been in discussion for 18 months, and the Council is on firm legal ground.

"The city has been clear all along that we have a whole variety of measures trying to encourage students living in the downtown areas and limit student rentals in the neighborhoods for a variety of reasons," Byrne said. "We haven't been doing this without public exposure, we feel like we've put it out there."

He said the city worked with West Virginia University law professor Bob Bastress to develop the ordinance. Byrne is confident the city has addressed any constitutional issues with the ordinance.

"College towns are always addressing the issues. This is not the first time anyone has done this, we are not inventing the wheel here," Byrne said. "We've looked at what other municipalities have done, we've looked at other circumstances in college towns, we've looked very closely at the constitutional issues, and we think we are in good shape."

The ordinance takes affect Sept. 1 along with the previous ordinance changing the definition of family.

Another issue discussed at the meeting included some changes to the city's budget.

Morgantown is currently facing budgetary shortfalls, said Dan Boroff, city manager. He added that growth in Morgantown has slowed, general fund tax revenues have diminished in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

He cited the sluggish national economy and bad weather this winter as possible causes but said the causes will be more clear in six to nine months.

"We are not as in as strong a position as what we've traditionally been," he said. "We would like to see a contingency of about $600,000; the contingency is only $20,000."

Boroff said he met with department heads and they decided not to fill job vacancies, and some capital acquisitions will be postponed until they can determine what has caused these shortfalls.

Morgantown's economy is still strong compared to the rest of the state, Boroff said, but it is best to deal with the problems as soon as they become apparent.

The city has made more than $3.5 million in infrastructure investments over the past year, Boroff said.