Dear members of Roanoke City Council,

We urge you to fully protect the 2024 comprehensive zoning reforms. These reforms are essential for fostering affordable housing, safe multimodal transit, and walkable neighborhoods for people of all ages. Reverting to 20th-century exclusionary land-use practices threatens our city’s economic resilience by prioritizing single-family lots and car-centered infrastructure. 

The “missing middle” housing crisis. Our current housing landscape fails working families, seniors, and young professionals. The following are examples of concerning trends: 

●    Home ownership rates are shrinking: Roanoke experienced a troubling 8.2% loss of owner-occupied households between 2011 and 2021.
●    Local income remains low, at about $55k, relative to our state median. Low income and a lack of housing options pushes 48% of residents into a competitive rental market.
●    Missing affordable options: We lack crucial  housing like duplexes, triplexes, and courtyard-style clusters of homes, which historically served first-time home owners. Housing supply exists at the extremes of single-family lots or large apartment buildings.

Addressing community concerns. The city has already helpfully addressed common objections. 

●    Density: Projected development is incremental, showing only a 3% density increase over the next 30 years—not a sudden flood of rapid high-rise development.
●    Infrastructure: Incremental development maximizes existing infrastructure (roads, utilities), making it far more fiscally sustainable than suburban sprawl.
●    Character: The reforms re-legalize traditional housing types that already characterize beloved historic neighborhoods like Grandin Village–places that would not exist if modern restrictive zoning codes had guided its development. We must not hold onto 20th-century land-use policies that have failed to create liveable, accessible places.
●    Property values: Research shows that modest upzoning for housing diversity does not depress property values, but instead increases neighborhood attractiveness and vitality.

Essential provisions that must be protected. We call on the City Council to explicitly protect these four key provisions: 

1.    Eliminate single-family-only zoning: The code must continue to permit duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes by right to allow income-diverse housing supply.
2.    Legalize ADUs and ACUs: Avoid red tape that prevents homeowners from building Accessory Dwelling Units and Commercial Units for economic and rental opportunities.
3.    Refine group living definitions: Base definitions of “Household” and “Group Living” on land-use impact rather than familial relationships to protect vulnerable populations.
4.    Eliminate minimum parking requirements: Stop forcing the paving of valuable land for mandatory parking spaces, which drives up housing costs and harms walkability.

We encourage you to free Roanoke’s people to build an equitable and walkable city, together. 

Strong Towns Roanoke