At its meeting July 11, 2016, in Morgantown, the Municipal Home Rule Board approved two more municipalities to join those that have already been granted Home Rule status, and also agreed to permit six cities to consider local ordinances allowing the sale of alcohol earlier on Sundays.
Home Rule status requests from Weston (Lewis County) and Follansbee (Brooke County) were approved by the board. Thirty slots for combined Classes I, II and III municipalities have been allowed in a pilot program by the state Legislature for Home Rule status. The approvals of Weston and Follansbee fill the final two slots available.
The board also granted requests from six current Home Rule municipalities to begin considering participation in a new state law, commonly called the “brunch bill,” that allows licensed establishments to sell alcoholic beverages Sundays starting at 10 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. The board approved the requests from Bluefield, Charleston, Clarksburg, Lewisburg, Martinsburg and South Charleston.
The Municipal Home Rule Pilot Program was created in 2007 and began with four cities: Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling and Bridgeport. The initial pilot program lasted five years and granted those cities authority to enact ordinances, acts, resolutions, rules and regulations without regard to state law with several exceptions. Home-rule municipalities must still comply with the constitutions of the United States and West Virginia, and some state laws, such as criminal and controlled substance laws, are still off-limits.
Based on its initial success, the 2013 Legislature moved to continue and expand the program to 16 more cities. On March 14, 2015, the West Virginia Legislature expanded the program a second time, permitting the addition of 14 more municipalities. The bill specified that four of the new municipalities must be Class IV.
Information about the Home Rule Board is available at www.wvcommerce.org/homerule.
