Huge new development (Charleston, Morgantown, Cheat Lake: for sale, 2014, home builder)
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well obviously those "towns" would have to want it, but Morgantown could easily coax them into it....There doesnt even seem to be any attempt at all, which is is very weird..Annexation makes absolute perfect sense for a growing area.....it happened with Sabraton.....
It makes so much more sense for one big city than a bunch of little towns. There is so much wasted tax dollars with the amount of redundant services and groups. Plus it would thoroughly **** off Charleston that Morgantown would be the largest city is the state (we are currently third and not to far behind), but this is a side point. As it is, all of these little towns compete for the same businesses, residents etc... it really makes no sense.
It makes so much more sense for one big city than a bunch of little towns. There is so much wasted tax dollars with the amount of redundant services and groups. Plus it would thoroughly **** off Charleston that Morgantown would be the largest city is the state (we are currently third and not to far behind), but this is a side point. As it is, all of these little towns compete for the same businesses, residents etc... it really makes no sense.
Morgantown's tax rate is the highest of any local municipality, so I don't see how the increased efficiency of a united Morgantown would help anyone but those who are already in Morgantown city limits. I don't see any benefit of farming my local police and other services out to Morgantown just so that they can be based further from my home and charge me more in taxes.
Doing something for the sake upsetting the balance elsewhere is not a sound argument. Besides, Charleston could just as easily annex some of the many towns in its vicinity under this illogical scenario. Kanawha County is the most populous county in the state and probably also the largest. One shouldn't start a tit-for-tat battle unless one is certain they can win in the end, and Mon County's ~100k people are no match for Kanawha's nearly 200k, regardless of the opposing trends in each area.
Really though, who cares what is Morgantown proper vs what is elsewhere in Mon County? It affects no one in any way except those who pay taxes, are in need of police assistance, or have a house that is on fire. MUB is a great service for the whole area and we are lucky that most of Mon County (and parts of Greene County) is served by them. Our area's growth would be incredibly hampered if every little development had to build facilities for water treatment or trust WV ground water (which hopefully no one does in any coal county).
Morgantown's tax rate is the highest of any local municipality, so I don't see how the increased efficiency of a united Morgantown would help anyone but those who are already in Morgantown city limits. I don't see any benefit of farming my local police and other services out to Morgantown just so that they can be based further from my home and charge me more in taxes.
Doing something for the sake upsetting the balance elsewhere is not a sound argument. Besides, Charleston could just as easily annex some of the many towns in its vicinity under this illogical scenario. Kanawha County is the most populous county in the state and probably also the largest. One shouldn't start a tit-for-tat battle unless one is certain they can win in the end, and Mon County's ~100k people are no match for Kanawha's nearly 200k, regardless of the opposing trends in each area.
Really though, who cares what is Morgantown proper vs what is elsewhere in Mon County? It affects no one in any way except those who pay taxes, are in need of police assistance, or have a house that is on fire. MUB is a great service for the whole area and we are lucky that most of Mon County (and parts of Greene County) is served by them. Our area's growth would be incredibly hampered if every little development had to build facilities for water treatment or trust WV ground water (which hopefully no one does in any coal county).
My point about Charleston was not a reason to do it, it was a side point more than anything, as I said. Definitely not a factor in doing it. You are correct about population size, Mon County sits at about 135K full time residents at last count and Kanawha has about 185K at last count. Kanawha sits as the largest county in the state, with Berkeley second place (just a slight hair above mon county), with mon closely behind in third and cabel county distantly in 4th.
My point is though, it does not make sense for every town to have a police captain, a mayor, a council, etc.... If all were under the same umbrella, everything would be more streamlined (in theory), each area would obviously have a police outpost/building type of thing, you would just have more of the administrative stuff streamlined instead of multiple smaller systems. There are a lot of residents that are stuck in a no mans land where property isn't quite in any of the towns but is sort of surround by them, the state police don't want to respond because they believe one of the towns should, but none of the towns will because they claim it is the other towns responsibility or state police problem. They at least need to streamline for the whole area that whoever is closer can respond.
One example of why people should care what is Morgantown proper vs other areas is with Morgantown user fee, lots of people work in Morgantown itself but don't live here and live in surrounding areas. They use the roads and services of the town but don't pay taxes in the town, causing the people who do live in Morgantown to pay for those people, hence the user fee getting enacted. Meanwhile Granville or Star City (which ever has UTC in it) is living high on the taxes hog, they have the shopping tax income from UTC and from people living in the town, they are so high on the tax hog they bought a big fire fighting boat that literally will barely ever if ever be used, but hey we have so much tax money from UTC we can afford a shiny new boat. If UTC area, Star City, Granville and Westover were part of Morgantown, maybe the taxes could be lower in Morgantown and we would all have nice things (better parks, more even police coverage, better city roads) as a stronger and more unified town since you have a much larger and more diversified tax base.
Maybe a metro government setup where each town keeps it's unique identification but comes in under a brand of Greater Morgantown (then police force and other groups etc is through Greater Morgantown instead of a bunch of little inefficient groups) might be best. Do I know what is best, no, but I do think something needs to be done or at least looked at. Because the way it is now is detrimental to the whole area, and I know I am not the only one who gets slightly ticked off seeing Granville/Star city (which ever one it is) with all of their new and shiny toys because of having the shopping area in their bounds while we have to pay a user fee to make up for the fact the area is fragmented into many small towns.
I do agree though MUB is a wonderful asset and I'm glad it serves a large base, its why we pay such cheap rates, since the fixed cost is spread out over a much larger area. I used to live in a county that had a bunch of small fragmented water systems and the water and sewer was stupidly expensive, since less people were paying to cover the fixed costs of having the system.
My point about Charleston was not a reason to do it, it was a side point more than anything, as I said. Definitely not a factor in doing it. You are correct about population size, Mon County sits at about 135K full time residents at last count and Kanawha has about 185K at last count. Kanawha sits as the largest county in the state, with Berkeley second place (just a slight hair above mon county), with mon closely behind in third and cabel county distantly in 4th.
My point is though, it does not make sense for every town to have a police captain, a mayor, a council, etc.... If all were under the same umbrella, everything would be more streamlined (in theory), each area would obviously have a police outpost/building type of thing, you would just have more of the administrative stuff streamlined instead of multiple smaller systems. There are a lot of residents that are stuck in a no mans land where property isn't quite in any of the towns but is sort of surround by them, the state police don't want to respond because they believe one of the towns should, but none of the towns will because they claim it is the other towns responsibility or state police problem. They at least need to streamline for the whole area that whoever is closer can respond.
One example of why people should care what is Morgantown proper vs other areas is with Morgantown user fee, lots of people work in Morgantown itself but don't live here and live in surrounding areas. They use the roads and services of the town but don't pay taxes in the town, causing the people who do live in Morgantown to pay for those people, hence the user fee getting enacted. Meanwhile Granville or Star City (which ever has UTC in it) is living high on the taxes hog, they have the shopping tax income from UTC and from people living in the town, they are so high on the tax hog they bought a big fire fighting boat that literally will barely ever if ever be used, but hey we have so much tax money from UTC we can afford a shiny new boat. If UTC area, Star City, Granville and Westover were part of Morgantown, maybe the taxes could be lower in Morgantown and we would all have nice things (better parks, more even police coverage, better city roads) as a stronger and more unified town since you have a much larger and more diversified tax base.
Maybe a metro government setup where each town keeps it's unique identification but comes in under a brand of Greater Morgantown (then police force and other groups etc is through Greater Morgantown instead of a bunch of little inefficient groups) might be best. Do I know what is best, no, but I do think something needs to be done or at least looked at. Because the way it is now is detrimental to the whole area, and I know I am not the only one who gets slightly ticked off seeing Granville/Star city (which ever one it is) with all of their new and shiny toys because of having the shopping area in their bounds while we have to pay a user fee to make up for the fact the area is fragmented into many small towns.
I do agree though MUB is a wonderful asset and I'm glad it serves a large base, its why we pay such cheap rates, since the fixed cost is spread out over a much larger area. I used to live in a county that had a bunch of small fragmented water systems and the water and sewer was stupidly expensive, since less people were paying to cover the fixed costs of having the system.
Where are you getting that info? Population figures are:
And for your second point there, Berkeley is farther ahead of Mon than Mon is from Cabell
Whoops those are the correct figures, I just checked American fact finder census, I remember the numbers wrong from last time I saw them. Sorry.
Regarding being closer to cabell, while true for now, during a 5 year period cabell added around 500 residents, while mon county added a little over 8,100 residents and berkeley added around 7,700. Meanwhile at this same time period Kanawha lost around 4,700. So things are definitely changing, still a long way to go obviously.
I agree with Matt. It makes for a weaker metro with all these mini kingdoms competing for scraps. Every town will want a town center, a business park, a mall, a million chain restaurants, 8 hotels, a sheets on every corner. There at least needs to be central planning that holds weight over all these districs.
On topic, in my experience Dan Ryan houses don't stand the test of time. I give it 10 years before harvest ridge turns into the favelas
Maybe I'm just stupid but what exactly is the favelas? I personally live in a Dan Ryan home and have so for 5 years. We have neighbors who are going on 8-9 years. Everyone who seems to have or have had issues have had them resolved by the builder or the developer. Issues that most people complain about is appliances having issues which has nothing to do with Dan Ryan... You choose your appliances when writing the contract. A few other issues have involved drainage and the developer came back in and redid the entire drainage system in HR... Again nothing to do with Dan Ryan. Our home and all homes in HR was stick built and not a prefab like some think Dan Ryan homes are. You have the option to upgrade all builder grade specs to high end options if you choose and pay for them. Also one last note, Dan Ryan homes is not Ryan homes which is usually a common misconception.
Morgantown's tax rate is the highest of any local municipality, so I don't see how the increased efficiency of a united Morgantown would help anyone but those who are already in Morgantown city limits. I don't see any benefit of farming my local police and other services out to Morgantown just so that they can be based further from my home and charge me more in taxes.
Doing something for the sake upsetting the balance elsewhere is not a sound argument. Besides, Charleston could just as easily annex some of the many towns in its vicinity under this illogical scenario. Kanawha County is the most populous county in the state and probably also the largest. One shouldn't start a tit-for-tat battle unless one is certain they can win in the end, and Mon County's ~100k people are no match for Kanawha's nearly 200k, regardless of the opposing trends in each area.
Really though, who cares what is Morgantown proper vs what is elsewhere in Mon County? It affects no one in any way except those who pay taxes, are in need of police assistance, or have a house that is on fire. MUB is a great service for the whole area and we are lucky that most of Mon County (and parts of Greene County) is served by them. Our area's growth would be incredibly hampered if every little development had to build facilities for water treatment or trust WV ground water (which hopefully no one does in any coal county).
The difference is that Morgantown has a lot of small towns that most people would consider already part of "city limits". Hell....Suncrest Town Center isn't even part of city limits. That's absurd. Charleston is broken up with more naturally defined barriers. South Charleston, Dunbar, Marmet, Belle, etc are a lot more clearly defined towns as opposed to Morgantown where you cross into Star City by going to the road next to Collins Ferry. Or Brookhaven, or Osage, Westover, Granville, etc. If Morgantown would annex those towns, then you could compare Morgantown expanding further than that to Charleston's current limits
Population density is spread out in Kanawha County. Mon County's population is heavily focused around Morgantown. Western Mon county is practically barren. So, like I said, it's a lot more practical for Morgantown to annex their small surrounding towns than the more established/defined towns around Charleston. This wouldn't turn into a "battle"
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