The Evans Spring area is the mostly undeveloped land across Interstate 581 from Valley View Mall. This is the view looking south, toward downtown Roanoke, as seen from the Lick Run Greenway. Photo by Dwayne Yancey.
The Evans Spring area is the mostly undeveloped land across Interstate 581 from Valley View Mall. This is the view looking south, toward downtown Roanoke, as seen from the Lick Run Greenway. Photo by Dwayne Yancey.

The city of Roanoke will continue holding community meetings over the next two weeks to discuss three council member initiatives: the 2024 zoning text amendments, the Evans Spring plan and a potential vape shop ordinance.

Meetings initially set for Monday and Tuesday have been rescheduled to next week due to the weather, but Wednesday’s meeting at the Williamson Road Library remains on the schedule. 

In 2025, the city introduced council member initiatives as a way for council members to bring an issue to the table for discussion and study. 

In August, council members Phazhon Nash and Nick Hagen introduced two initiatives. Nash proposed the creation of a business operating fee for vape-only retailers, and Hagen proposed repealing or amending the zoning code changes made in 2024 that eliminated single-family-only zoning throughout the city. 

Also last year, Nash introduced an initiative surrounding future development at Evans Spring, the largest plot of land left undeveloped in the city, which has been a point of controversy for years.

Nash said the goal is to look back at options that would benefit the community immediately surrounding the land and to think about low-impact development and green space.

The three initiatives were recently combined into one because the planning department is dealing with about 10 staff vacancies and doesn’t have the capacity to run separate processes for each initiative, Deputy City Manager Angie O’Brien said during a December council meeting. 

The first two community meetings were held last week, on Wednesday evening at the Belmont Library and on Thursday evening at the Raleigh Court Library. Nash said he went to Thursday’s meeting, and “the room was pretty packed.” 

He said people at the meeting told him they liked the vape shop initiative that he had proposed in August. Nash said vape shops tend to proliferate in lower-income neighborhoods, and he wants to make these products harder to access.

“I’m not trying to be anti-business, but I am trying to be pro-health,” Nash said. 

Here’s the revised schedule for the remaining meetings over the next two weeks:

  • Williamson Road Library: Wednesday, 5:30-7 p.m.
  • Gainsboro Library: Saturday, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
  • Melrose Library: Feb. 2, 5:30-7 p.m.
  • Main Library: Feb. 3, 5:30-7 p.m.

Sam graduated from Penn State with degrees in journalism and Spanish. She was an investigative reporter...