Fayette County, NRG RDA and conservation partners lay out plan, funding and timeline for Wolf Creek Park

FAYETTE COUNTY — Fayette County officials and representatives from the NRG Regional Development Authority (NRG RDA) and the Conservation Fund used a special public information session to outline a next-step plan to study, market and attract developers for Wolf Creek Park, a more-than-900-acre property the county acquired to pursue housing and community-focused development.

The meeting, held in the Commission Chambers and streamed online, focused on producing a practical site plan and financing strategy rather than reopening general debate about the property’s long history. Jenna Belcher, participating by Zoom, said the goal is to create a “mixed use, community driven” plan that prioritizes housing and complementary small businesses rather than large industrial development.

Why it matters: County officials said Wolf Creek Park is intended to help address a critical local housing shortage and to protect recreation and conservation assets already used by residents. The property has been the subject of multiple past studies and a controversial attempted sale to an outside developer; officials said the new effort aims to move from concept to an actionable, fundable development plan.

At the session NRG RDA described the planned process and near-term schedule: finalize an RFP for a planning consultant with input from the Conservation Fund, select a vendor this spring or summer, produce draft plans with iterative public input through the summer, and aim to have a site plan and marketing package ready by late summer or early fall. The Conservation Fund has awarded a $110,000 technical-assistance grant to support predevelopment planning for the park; meeting remarks said that the conservation fund’s own deadline for submitted work to them is Oct. 25, and NRG RDA plans to set shorter internal deadlines to keep the work moving.

The plan will explicitly map existing natural-resource uses — including more than a dozen miles of soft-surface trails and the New River Nature and Birding Center — and overlay those assets with developable parcels so stakeholders can see where housing, small commercial sites and preserved areas could coexist. Meeting speakers said most of the park’s developable acreage sits on higher ground, with utilities extensible to some but not all parcels.

Key facts and near-term milestones disclosed at the meeting: - Total property: described as “in excess of 900 acres,” with about 240 acres repeatedly identified in the session as generally considered developable. Previous planning documents have shown roughly 80–100 acres envisioned for residential use and 30–90 acres for manufacturing/industrial in different scenarios; speakers said those estimates vary by study and will be a primary focus of the new plan. - Utilities: electric, gas (Mountaineer Gas), water (West Virginia American Water) and internet (Frontier) are present to portions of the site but do not currently extend across the whole property; meeting comments said extending wastewater, water and roads will be major infrastructure costs. - Funding and support: the Conservation Fund’s Activating the Natural Resources Economy (ANRE) program provided a $110,000 grant for technical assistance to NRG RDA; the county has used ARPA funds in past purchases and officials mentioned the Build West Virginia tax credit and other financing tools as potential components of a subsidy package to attract developers. - Schedule and deliverables: NRG RDA expects to finalize an RFP with Conservation Fund input, select a planning consultant in spring or summer, undertake iterative public engagement while the consultant develops a site plan, and target a public-ready plan in August–September. A regional housing study related to county needs is in draft, will be finalized March 31, and its findings will be presented publicly April 23 in Beckley.

Speakers repeatedly emphasized that today’s effort will try to produce not only a map of developable land but also an execution strategy that identifies what subsidies, tax arrangements or districting (for example, a community development district) would be necessary to make the site financially feasible for private developers. "What this plan will do is not only... solidify the developable from the non-developable properties," Jenna Belcher said, "it will also give us a tool to determine what kind of potential subsidies or investments need to come before a developer can be attracted to develop this property."

Conservation and recreation advocates also pressed for preservation of trails and the volunteer-run New River Nature and Birding Center. Meeting presenters said a draft MOU has been circulated to preserve access and to identify roles for volunteer groups in trail maintenance and rerouting if needed. Miles Curtsey, program associate at the Conservation Fund, described the ANRE program’s dual mission of conservation and locally rooted economic development and said the Fund aims to provide technical assistance and catalytic predevelopment capital.

Several speakers noted the project’s history, including prior negotiations with an outside developer known as Blue Water and criticism of those past negotiations’ transparency. County and RDA representatives said that, because the county purchased the property, local authorities now control the process and intend to be more transparent going forward. RDA and commission speakers asked stakeholders to submit questions via an upcoming project webpage; in the interim, they suggested sending questions to the NRG RDA contact email posted on the agency website.

Concerns raised at the meeting included infrastructure costs, traffic and multimodal access (participants highlighted Appalachian Drive and nearby intersections as areas that could need improvements if residential density increases), potential annexation complications with nearby Oak Hill, and the need to ensure a range of housing types so development is not limited to prohibitively expensive units. One speaker estimated infrastructure costs for wastewater and water alone could approach $20 million; presenters described such figures as the reason a financing strategy is essential to attract developers.

Votes and formal actions: there were no land-sale votes or contract awards recorded at the session. Meeting presenters said the Conservation Fund has made a $110,000 technical-assistance grant to NRG RDA; the meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn that was moved and seconded on the record.

The RDA and county said the next public-facing steps will be a posted RFP, an online project page for questions and documents, virtual public meetings hosted by the selected consultant, and continued stakeholder outreach as the planning work progresses.