WHEELING — Downtown parking lots operated by West Virginia Northern Community College are being upgraded with landscaping and architectural designs that will complement the aesthetics of the coming $25 million Wheeling Streetscape Project, which is scheduled to begin next spring.

Members of the Wheeling Planning Commission on Monday night reviewed and approved site plans for two WVNCC lots that are being improved. One lot is located at the corner of Main and 16th streets, while the other is located to the south of the main campus of WVNCC near 18th Street between Chapline and Market streets.

Jeff Sayre, chief financial officer for WVNCC, and Gabe Hays, director of landscape architecture and planning for the Wallace Pancher Group, were on hand during the virtual planning commission meeting Monday night to discuss plans for the two lots.

“We’ve done a lot of design here in a way that is consistent with a lot of the downtown projects we’re doing, including the Streetscape,” Hays said.

Proposals for improvements to the lot near 18th Street came forward last year, followed by the city’s approval of a request for abandonment of the portion of the street that bisects what are currently two lots — a paved lot adjacent to the college campus and an unfinished lot to the south that extends to Wheeling Creek. Plans to improve this lot will bring upgrades and landscaping to the entire piece of property.

An existing chain link fence along the creek side of the lot will be removed and replaced with a new black, vinyl-coated chain link fence that will be relocated further out to the actual property line between WVNCC and the W.Va. Department of Highways, which owns the property along the creek banks.

The lot at 16th and Main streets recently had several underground storage tanks removed, and work is being completed to have this lot put back to use for WVNCC parking.

Hays noted that landscaping features will be added to this lot, as well, and decorative fencing that matches the type used outside of the recently upgraded downtown WesBanco property will be installed along the street sides bordering Main and 16th streets.

“We’re also going to be using that in the Streetscape project, as well,” Hays said of the decorative fencing.

Planning commission members took issue with plans to erect black vinyl-coated chain-link fencing on the north and east sides of the lot which border The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register parking lot and adjacent ally.

“Having spoken informally with other council members if it gets to this point, I know they are discouraged with any type of chain-link fence in the downtown area,” said Wheeling City Councilman Dave Palmer, who represents council on the Wheeling Planning Commission.

In order to move forward with plans, parties agreed to remove the chain link fencing from the site plan.

“We strive to be a great partner with the city,” Sayre said, noting that WVNCC has a construction meeting scheduled for today, when officials at the college could discuss alternate plans for fencing that meets both the city fence ordinance and falls within the college’s construction budget.

Other than the fence issue, city officials praised the effort put into the design for the parking lot improvement plans, noting that the designs not only met code but also exceeded the city’s standards and will be a welcome addition to the downtown once completed.

These downtown lots are among others being improved in the downtown. As part of the city’s Streetscape project, Nailers Way is expected to be relocated to create a four-way intersection where Main and 16th streets connect.

This will bisect the city surface lot outside of WesBanco arena between the Flatiron building and Wheeling Creek, adjacent to the site where development of a new downtown city park — Robrecht Riverfront Park — is in the works with the help of federal highway grant funds allocated to Wheeling from the state of West Virginia. Plans for this park call for major improvements to a gravel lot on the south side of the creek, as well.

Other parking areas are being improved as well. Last week, Wheeling City Council approved an ordinance authorizing up to $325,000 for a contract with McKinley Architecture Engineering to design renovations to the Centre Wheeling Parking Garage, and paving of city-owned parking lot at 17th and Eoff streets is being resurfaced as part of the city’s street paving projects for this year.