LRA moves to consider Cole Street acquisition and adjourns to executive session under West Virginia code

The Land Reuse Agency moved to consider acquiring a parcel on Cole Street and temporarily adjourned into executive session to discuss property transactions and related planning, members said.

The item matters because the agency signaled a formal intent to acquire the Cole Street parcel contingent on a transfer by the sanitary board and tied the acquisition to redevelopment that agency members described as intended for mixed-use, market-rate housing.

LRA Member 2, an LRA member, moved "relative to item a, a new business, recognizing the transfer of or the intent to acquire parcel on Cole Street if the sanitary board takes ownership and transfers to the LRA that parcel under the conditions that have been presented in this resolution," and said the resolution should include language that "mixed use and market rate housing is the intended use of the Golf Building property on which the premise of this transaction is being based." LRA Member 3 seconded the motion as amended.

Before taking up the item, the agency agreed to reorder the agenda so the item would be discussed with an immediate executive session. As LRA Member 3 put it, "Pursuant to chapter 6, article 9 a, section 4 of the West Virginia code, I believe that the land reuse agency adjourned to executive session to discuss matters involving the purchase, sale, or lease of property, advanced construction planning, the investment of public funds, or other matters involving competition, which, if made public may adversely affect the financial or other interests of this agency." The transcript indicates members agreed to move the item ahead of other business to permit that executive-session discussion.

A voice vote was called during consideration; the excerpted record contains the motion, a second and a call for "all those in favor," but does not include a roll-call tally or an explicit recorded outcome in the provided transcript excerpt. The resolution language as described by members conditions the acquisition on the sanitary board taking ownership and transferring the parcel to the LRA and specifies the intended redevelopment use as mixed-use, market-rate housing.

Discussion: members focused on procedural steps—moving the agenda item to permit an executive session under the cited West Virginia statute, and on the conditions that must be met before the agency would take ownership. The transcript does not include further specifics about purchase price, financing, schedule, or any required external approvals beyond the sanitary board transfer.

Next steps and timing were not recorded in the excerpt. The public record excerpt does not show final vote tallies or an explicit finalized agreement; any implementation would be contingent on the sanitary board transfer and any further agency action.