Housing - The Roanoke Rambler

City To Repeal, Replace Zoning Reforms After Roanoke Sued Over Single-Family Housing

City Council voted to begin the process of repealing and replacing in “similar substance” a raft of zoning changes the city adopted in March.

A mayoral candidate and a former city attorney are among the dozen plaintiffs asking a Roanoke judge to invalidate the law.

Roanoke joins cities in Virginia and across the country that are rolling back single-family-only zoning in favor of more dense housing.

City Council is expected to vote Monday on reforms staff say is aimed at increasing housing and decreasing racial and economic inequities.

Effort to end single-family-only zoning is meant to spur more housing, decrease inequities, city officials say.

The housing authority’s ownership of the steep-sloped woods traces back to urban renewal.

Roanoke officials heralded progress with the city's land bank and the creation of a $2 million affordable housing fund.

Officials hope a change to the program run by the nonprofit Total Action for Progress will get more abandoned homes restored.

The city’s housing authority hopes to construct an initial 86-unit complex in Northwest Roanoke.

Even with the record government investment, officials acknowledge it can only go so far to address Roanoke's affordable housing needs.

“So your recommendation is, essentially, ‘Do this as quickly as you can,’” the commission's chairman told a consultant.

Roanoke's housing authority is beginning to explore a shift that would allow it to more easily retrofit, demolish and expand housing.