CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Debate is heating up over the state’s role in big hospitality development projects in very small towns.
The focal point is Hill Top House, a $139 million hotel renovation project that has been discussed for a decade in Harpers Ferry, population 281. A few other big projects in small towns could be affected too.
Last week, Senator Patricia Rucker, a Republican from Jefferson County, where the Hill Top House redevelopment project would be located, introduced legislation that would allow the state Development Office to take over guidance of such projects under limited circumstances.
Co-sponsors were two powerful senators from the Eastern Panhandle, Senate Finance Chairman Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan.
.@RuckerforWV and @BradMcElhinny talk with @HoppyKercheval at the Capitol on her bill to try to clear the way for development of a new Hilltop House in Harpers Ferry. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/WfKSbBj4c1
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) January 28, 2020
Then on Friday morning, a similar bill popped into the House of Delegates, also with a significant set of sponsors.
The lead sponsor is House Finance Chairman Eric Householder, R-Berkeley. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw is a sponsor too. So is Delegate Vernon Criss, the vice chairman of the Finance Committee where the bill is assigned.
And a bipartisan group of delegates from the Eastern Panhandle have also signed on. Those include delegates Jason Barrett, D-Berkeley; Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan; Larry Kump, R-Berkeley; Marshall Wilson, I-Berkeley; Tom Bibby, R-Berkeley; John Hardy; R-Berkeley and Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson.
The issue may receive plenty of attention starting Monday, which is Jefferson County Day at the Legislature. Some Harpers Ferry residents have put together a flyer in opposition to the bills, describing the proposed act as a “taking.”
Harpers Ferry Mayor Wayne Bishop sees where this is headed.
“They’re preempting our written laws, ordinances, processes that we have in place that governed the town of Harpers Ferry and how it relates to our zoning,” Bishop said on the telephone last week.
“This legislation is flying around, and never has the leadership of Harpers Ferry been engaged. It looks to be a quick end-around to our town government.”
Bishop plans to make his case in person at the state Capitol this coming week.
He will point to the town’s own ordinances and processes that normally would apply as well as practical matters such as public streets at the hotel site and the traditional public access to a scenic overlook just past the hotel property.
Should the state determine what happens to those?
“It’s like all the good work that’s been done to date has just been shoved aside,” Bishop said. “There’s just this assumption that the state’s going to do something better – the state’s going to be the big stick to tell us what to do in Harpers Ferry.”
But Bishop suggests Harpers Ferry might welcome some aspects of state help — particularly funding for abatement of the current Hill Top House structure, which is falling apart, and funding to review plans of the hotel prior to its reconstruction.
“I think the right order of things would be appropriations of funds to get rid of the building and then appropriations of funds for review of the new building,’ Bishop said.
“That would be a huge help to the town of Harpers Ferry from the state. That would be proactive.”
The long history of Hill Top House
The Hill Top House project has been under discussion for years, and frustration has been coming to a head.
Hill Top House first opened in 1889, burned down twice and reopened twice and continued until 2007 when the current ownership group, SWaN Investors, bought it and closed it because of poor structural integrity.
In 2009, the SWaN investors announced intention of rebuilding and reopening the hotel.
Since then, the project has progressed only on paper.
In 2017, a new zoning overlay district was created by Harpers Ferry elected officials. The Promontory Overlay District Ordinance is the existing legal guide for how Hill Top House would exist within the residential neighborhoods of Harpers Ferry.
After that, SWaN provided more detailed plans for what would be required to make the development and its financing work. Those revised plans were presented in 2018 and remain the subject of debate.
They include matters like water rates, sewer rates, building permit fees, review fees and a number of other issues such as whether the town of Harpers Ferry would give up the right to stop work orders or noise ordinances.
The biggest issue right now is the streets around the hotel. The developers propose using not only the land where the hotel now sits but surrounding properties also under their ownership too. Doing so would make the development a cohesive hospitality destination.
But because Hill Top House is in a residential area, the streets surrounding it are public property.
Some, like a proposed realignment of Columbia Street, are actual roads used by pedestrians and vehicles. The others, like a portion of East Ridge Street, are “paper streets,” meaning they were mapped out on a town grid in the 1800s but have not been built.
The Hill Top House developers want to buy the streets, saying there is some precedent for doing so. Town leaders prefer long-term leasing, maybe 50 or 100 years.
This is the complex situation the state might step into.
Tourism Development Districts
The bills in the House and Senate would allow for five Tourism Development Districts. The act would enable the state Development Office to spearhead a project under certain conditions.
The bill would apply to Class IV municipalities of fewer than 2,000 residents. And it would apply to projects with investments of more than $25 million, in historic districts and qualifying for state tourism tax credits, which have their own requirements.
The bill would preempt: “The right of certain municipalities to impose or enforce local laws and ordinances concerning the creation or regulation of any tourism development district and any tourism development project or tourism development expansion project therein.”
Bishop suggests this is overreach. He says the town already has expertise lined up to review the project, including Charleston attorney Mark Sadd for land use issues.
The mayor counters suggestions that small towns might not have the means for oversight of big projects with a counter-proposal — that the Development Office could kick in $90,000 for project review, that the developer could match the $90,000 and that the municipality could kick in 15 percent. Whatever remains at the end could be refunded.
“We certainly have the capability and the horsepower and the people to professionally review this thing. Let’s get that into the bill. That would be a win-win,” Bishop said.
“Let’s talk about it and let’s really find a process solution and the finances to support it. Let’s move forward that way. There’s no need for all the heartache and the angst for the citizens of Harpers Ferry.”
Legislative reaction
The lawmakers who vote on the bill will have to not only weigh whether they favor the project but whether they believe there are instances when the state should override what normally would be local authority.
Espinosa, the Republican whip in the House, said he is aware of that balance. He has often made the case for local control on the House floor.
“I think in this particular case, there’s a strong argument that can be made that the impacts of this proposed project extend well beyond Harpers Ferry,” Espinosa said during a Friday interview in the House of Delegates chamber.
He said constituents — including many who don’t live in Harpers Ferry — express worry that the project has not been moving forward. “That’s going to have a detrimental effect to our tourism in the Eastern Panhandle,” Espinosa said.
Delegate Sammi Brown, D-Jefferson, said she favors pushing the Hill Top House project forward — although she would like to build greater local transparency into the legislation. Brown said she grew up in Harpers Ferry and thinks the hotel renovation could benefit the area.
“In general, I think I support the intent of the senator,” Brown said, referring to the original bill. “But I think that there is still an opportunity to make sure those concerns are addressed and that we can do right by the community as a whole.”
Brown is thinking through some possible amendments to the bill, but acknowledged it might be hard to satisfy both state and local interests.
“It’s very much a policy quagmire,” she said, “and I am very empathetic to the fact that we are now in this position that we might not be able to make everybody happy in this situation. I do feel like it’s my responsibility to do the best we can.”
Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, similarly said he favors the project but wonders about the wisdom of removing local control. “It’s my understanding it would let the state make the decision,” Doyle said.
“I don’t like the idea of the state taking decision-making away from local governments.”
For many Jefferson County residents, he said, the scenario will bring to mind the decision-making that brought the controversial Rockwool plant. He favors the project but said it’s clear the town of Harpers Ferry is divided over how development should proceed.
“But the state saying we’re making the decision? Nah,” Doyle said.
Senator John Unger, D-Berkeley, preaches at churches in Harpers Ferry. His interactions made him aware how divided people are over the Hill Top House issue.
Unger said the state should steer clear of taking over the project.
“The best local control is what I’ve always encouraged — empowering local communities to make decisions and having the state support those decisions — because those are the citizens who have to live with the project,” Unger said.
He said this bill might have unintended consequences down the line.
“You know there could be something down the line that you don’t want, and you’re going to come to me and say ‘Why is the state coming in and forcing us to do it?’ And so you’ve got to be careful with that. You’ve got to make sure you maintain local control,” Unger said.
“I’m telling you right now, this issue has gotten a hornet’s nest really stirred up there. Because I think maybe that might have united the community because even the ones who want the project think it’s distasteful.”