By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
Fairmont — The City of Fairmont is clearing the way for a major housing development in the near future.
It may even be one of the most significant projects in city history.
“This has the potential to be probably the single largest housing investment in the City of Fairmont in several decades,” City Manager Travis Blosser said at a Planning Commission Meeting on Jan. 21.
On Feb. 24, Fairmont City Council held a workshop meeting to go over zoning changes recommended by the Planning Commission. Communications Manager David Kirk said the purpose of the meeting was to give Council a chance to become familiarized with what they will be responsible for voting on sometime in March.
The zoning changes recommended by the Planning Commission are being sought by two different projects. Veritas Contracting asked to have a property located on Fairmont Avenue north of 1565 Fairmont Ave. rezoned to Main Corridor Commercial. John and Carrie Menas applied to have a property off of Kaufman Drive rezoned to neighborhood residential.
The Menas project is the larger of the two, totaling about 41 acres while the Veritas project is 0.62 acres.
“Their plan is approximately 40 patio homes, another 60 single-family homes, some larger state homes and some town homes as well in this development,” Keith Axton, Ascent Consulting and Engineering project engineer, said at the Jan. 21 meeting. “In this development, it will go all the way from (US) 250 down to the riverfront.”
The Veritas project involves building around four or five townhouses on its rezoned parcel. City Planner Shae Strait advised rezoning on the Veritas project be changed to neighborhood residential zoning in order to prevent businesses like car washes, bars, hotels, motels, drive-thrus and other uses that could become a nuisance to neighborhood residents.
The larger Menas project would proceed in phases, with the first phase creating about 40 new housing units. Strait said at the Feb. 24 workshop that the rezoning would allow new streets to be created to service the development.
“The intent is to create a small network of city streets that will go down the property toward the Tygart River,” Strait said. “It will be developed in three to four phases and a roughly hundred or more housing units will be developed.”
Strait said two major roads will also be developed. Kauffman Drive will be upgraded, he said, and a new road is being proposed to service a long term care home in the area.
Both petitions will be folded into one ordinance, since the petitions are across the street from each other. A representative from Veritas had no objection to City’s recommendation to their zoning change.
Blosser said the Menas project is pretty advanced in their planning process. Blosser said the ambition of the project made him initially wary.
A spaced approach would ensure the project works favorably for the city, he said. Blosser also brought up past development projects that fell through because the city required proper connectivity to its roads and sidewalks for developers looking to build large projects.
“The prior folks who were involved in this didn’t like that, because that was going to make them have to spend some money,” Blosser said. “Yeah, it was going to make them spend money and do the development correctly. Which, is what the Menas are doing here.”
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