ROANOKE, Va. – While the decision was made two weeks ago, residents are pushing leaders in the Star City to reconsider the newly adopted zoning ordinances.
The 5-2 vote changed “Single-Family District” to “Residential District” as part of the city’s zoning.
The change allows for different types of homes to be built in the neighborhoods typically reserved for single-family homes, like townhomes, cottage courts and apartment complexes. City planners call these types of homes the “missing middle.”
Anthony Stavola has lived in the city for more than 40 years. He and a group of other neighbors are concerned the changes just allow for by-right development without getting the community’s input on development.
“This proposal as it was adopted, allows changes to occur to pretty much all the housing stock in the city that has previously been zoned single family...without the opportunity to have any input into the process,” Stavola said.
Among many issues is the issue of parking. Stavola has it on his own street.
“You can only get one car through there. Sometimes you can’t even do that. If several of these houses had two, three or four families living there....where, where do they go,” Stavola said.
The group of neighbors argue the city did not do enough to get the community’s input on the proposal of changes. 10 News asked why there weren’t a ton of people that showed up to the six open houses city planners had.
“Why do you think that it’s the city’s fault rather than the community not showing up for these?” 10 News asked Stavola.
“That’s a good question but I think the issue is how the city disseminated information about the meetings,” he responded.
Stavola and the rest of the group are trying to work with the city to look into some amendments to the changes to make it more neighbor-friendly. They are even considering legal action.