CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that could allow the state to assume oversight of big tourism development projects in very small towns.
Senate Bill 657, allowing designation of tourism development districts, passed the House of Delegates 88-11 with one absence. Although the Senate has already passed the bill, it is going back there to work out some changes instituted by the House.
There was little discussion of the bill on the House floor on Monday, except that Delegate John Doyle spoke against it and Delegate Marshall Wilson expressed skepticism but concluded he had little choice but to vote for the bill.
The Tourism Development Districts bill is likely to affect Hill Top House, a long-discussed hotel renovation project in Harpers Ferry.
The act would enable the state Development Office to spearhead a project under certain conditions. The Department of Transportation is required to provide support, including acquiring and developing streets and roads.
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 project most immediately affected would be Hill Top House, a historic property that was purchased by developers including Karen and Fred Schaufeld in 2007
The hangups on the project have been over how Hill Top House would interweave with the town’s zoning and the residential neighborhood where it is situated. For example, Hill Top House developers have wanted to buy and alter some public streets running through the hotel property.
Doyle, D-Jefferson, argued against the bill by saying it doesn’t respect Harpers Ferry’s historic status as the site of John Brown’s raid and more.
“I think we should defeat this bill,” Doyle said.
“We are about to pass a bill that eliminates all references to historic preservation in, of all places, Harpers Ferry.”
On Friday, Doyle had proposed an amendment that would have allowed for a local referendum, but it was defeated.
Wilson, I-Berkeley, expressed reservations about the possibility of state government overriding the governments of small towns.
But he made reference to a still-unresolved election in Harpers Ferry that could swing how town council approaches the project. The state Supreme Court is reviewing a dispute over whether four votes in last summer’s close town council election should have been counted.
So Wilson said he would have to support this bill.
“Meanwhile, I stand in support of this bill because it is the only path available to us at this point to uphold the natural rights of the residents of Harpers Ferry who would like to see a project in their town that has been blocked by local officials with inordinate power,” he said.
Separately, in Harpers Ferry on Thursday night, town council voted to pursue both binding arbitration with the Hill Top House developer and legal action concerning the legality and constitutionality of the bill flowing through the Legislature.