Wheeling Planning Commission members William Schwarz and Chairman Jeremy West, from left, attend a meeting Monday night, when the panel recommended that the final draft of the city's new 10-year Comprehensive Plan be forwarded to city council for final approval. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – Members of the Wheeling Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday night to recommend approval of the final draft of the Wheeling Forward 2034 Comprehensive Plan for the city.

The recommendation will now be forwarded on to Wheeling City Council, which is expected to hear a first reading on legislation to adopt the proposed 10-year Comprehensive Plan during its next regular meeting on Tuesday. The plan will then receive a second and final reading during council’s first meeting in January, when members will vote to ratify the plan.

City leaders had been working on developing Wheeling’s Comprehensive Plan update for more than a year now. The city hired Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Evolve to help navigate through the process, which involved a number of public workshops and an open comment period where citizens could weigh in on the proposal.

Every 10 years, municipalities in West Virginia are required to update their Comprehensive Plans, which describes a community’s vision for the future and provides a roadmap to make that vision become a reality. The plan will be used as a guide to inform future land use regulations and help cultivate growth and development for the next decade.

“I did receive a final, final version of the Comprehensive Plan 20 minutes before this meeting,” Wheeling Building and Planning Director Brenda J. Delbert told Planning Commission members on Monday night. “There were no substantive changes. There were a couple of changes specifically to the North Wheeling neighborhood that Councilman (Ben) Seidler wanted, but still very minor in the grand scheme of things.”

Those small changes pertained to highlight the fact that North Wheeling is a historic district in the city, Delbert noted.

A public hearing on the final draft of the Comprehensive Plan was held Monday night during the December meeting of the Wheeling Planning Commission. No citizens came to speak during the hearing.

Wheeling Building and Planning Director Brenda J. Delbert and Assistant City Solicitor Howard Klatt attend a meeting of the Wheeling Planning Commission on Monday night. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

Members subsequently moved to recommend the latest version of the plan and to forward it on to the city council for final consideration. The vote to support the plan as presented was unanimous among the members of the Wheeling Planning Commission. Members Seidler and Christina Schessler were not in attendance during Monday night’s meeting.

The action during the relatively brief meeting brought to a close a significant undertaking that had been on the Planning Commission’s plate for much of the past year and two months.

“I appreciate you guys – it’s been a long year and process,” Delbert told members of the Planning Commission, thanking commission Chairman Jeremy West for his leadership and input. “Especially you, chairman, for attending all of the meetings to help to get this to where we are today.”

“Glad to help,” West said.

Before the final draft was presented to the Planning Commission, Ashley Cox of Evolve reviewed the plan before council members during a Development Committee of Council meeting last week.

Cox noted that cities use Comprehensive Plans to further their work and prioritize investment. Communities use their plans as a reference document for grant writing, she noted.

“It summarizes the intentions of multiple stakeholder groups into one document,” Cox said, explaining how communities use the plan as a roadmap for future action.

The plan is a tool for community-oriented development that relies on investment priorities based on a collective vision for the future of the city and its neighborhoods.

Officials noted that the plan does not change the city’s current zoning code. It does, however, provide a guideline for future requests for zoning changes and variances.

“Obviously, the Comprehensive Plan is very comprehensive,” said Mayor Denny Magruder, chairman of the Development Committee of Council, who added that he and council members planned to carefully review the plan and make notes on sections of the document before legislation to adopt the draft comes before them in the weeks ahead.

Information about Wheeling’s proposed 10-year Comprehensive Plan – including a link to the most recently updated draft of the plan – can be found on a special page on the city’s website at www.wheelingwv.gov/departments/buildingandplanning/comprehensive-plan.