Nathan Wheat, owner of Roanoke Homes and Renovations, said he built 12 houses in the city last year — but only two so far in 2026.
That’s because of significant delays for permit approvals from the city’s Planning, Building and Development Department, he said. The delays have never been this long in his two decades as a Roanoke Valley builder, Wheat said.
Wheat said he just recently received a permit that he submitted eight months ago for a multifamily duplex in Northeast Roanoke. In Roanoke County, Salem or Botetourt, he could have a permit one or two weeks after submission, he said.
Roanoke City is issuing permits on such a delay due to major understaffing in the planning department, during a housing crisis that requires more housing stock to be built within the city. The department is currently 20 positions short — representing about one-third of its total staffing — according to a FOIA request from the city from late April. These vacancies include city planners, codes compliance inspectors, plan examiners, technicians and other positions.
The planning department has also seen turnover in leadership over the last couple of years. Chris Chittum, the former director of planning, building and development, left last year and was replaced by Jillian Papa, who exited the role in March. Mayor Joe Cobb said in an interview on Monday that the city will soon be working with an interim director, and City Manager Valmarie Turner said she’s hired a consultant to assess the department.
The understaffing within that department isn’t new, and it isn’t something that only the planning department is facing. The finance department is also facing short staffing, and the city is struggling with vacancies for CDL drivers, which caused a delay in recycling pick-ups this month. In late March, a city spokesperson said in an email that the city was facing 201 vacancies across the board.
In December, Steve Fowler of Lost Art Construction spoke before the council to address the permit delays.
Fowler, who said he mostly remodels and repairs old homes, said that it’s taking about six weeks for him to get approvals on a deck addition, or months for other additions to homes.
“This should not be like this for someone who has spent half their life as a professional builder,” Fowler said. Fowler has lived in the city for three years and said he began building here because there was little competition. He said in an interview in December that he thinks other contractors don’t want to work in the city “because it’s not worth their time.” Fowler said via text in late April that he had no updates on improvements.
Cobb said that before the coronavirus pandemic, builders said it might take three weeks to get a permit approval from the city.
“Now it’s taking three to six months,” Cobb said, “and none of us wants that. And that’s why we’re paying close attention to this.”
Isabel Thornton, executive director of Restoration Housing in Roanoke, said the group has had good experiences with the people they’ve worked with in the planning department, but that they did wait throughout the winter and spring of last year for a permit for their Trinity Commons project, which transformed the former Trinity United Methodist Church into affordable rental apartments for seniors. The group was able to stay close to its original timeline through a demolition permit, Thornton said.
Since January, the city has only reduced its vacancies in the planning department by one position.
Cobb said staffing is difficult because the city is looking for “people with specific experience to do specific jobs,” and once the city finds a qualified candidate, their salary range is often outside of the range that the city is able to pay.
“I think our salary levels are realistic,” Cobb said, but that “it’s hard to erase that gap” between higher private sector salaries and municipal salaries.
Effects on housing affordability and stock
Alexander Boone owns ABoone Real Estate, which develops homes across the Roanoke Valley. While he said he’s been affected by the lag in permit approvals, he hasn’t seen builders taking their work elsewhere.
“At the end of the day, there’s good and viable business for them in the city,” he said. “You just have to plan for the permitting process right now.”
Generally, demand is higher for housing in the city because of a shortage of it.
A 2021 Virginia Tech study found a lack of 4,500 housing units in the city and that over half of Roanoke’s residents are putting at least 30% of their income toward paying for rent or their mortgage — meaning Roanoke needs more housing overall, but especially more affordable housing. The Council of Community Services’ Winter 2026 Point in Time Count shows that homelessness in the Roanoke region increased by 3.1% in 2026 thus far and cites a lack of affordable housing as a primary challenge.
This is one of the factors that led to controversial citywide zoning changes that were passed twice in 2024, permitting a range of housing options in each neighborhood — changes which are scheduled to be in front of council again on May 18 for minor recommended changes from the planning commission.
Cobb, who has voted in support of the original citywide rezoning since its introduction to the city, said he’s heard from builders that restricting or “pulling back” on those original zoning amendments “isn’t helpful to them.”
“The sky hasn’t fallen,” Cobb said, on the impact of the zoning amendments that have been in place for almost two years. During a February city council meeting, Wayne Leftwich, the city’s former planning manager who left earlier this year, told the council that as of June 2025, the zoning changes resulted in 26-40 new housing units.
City planning commission member James Settle said all the city can do to help increase housing is to adopt zoning amendments, which they’ve already done.
Settle said these kinds of policies can take years before results are visible. “It’s like steering the Titanic,” he said.
Cobb said the timing issues in the planning department also affect the city’s revenues. When less housing is built, the city doesn’t make as much real estate tax revenue. He also noted that builders often have timeframes they must meet as a part of their financing.
Wheat said the interest on those loans also adds up – “I’m paying interest on this money when I could have had a house done.”
Until this year, the city’s lower housing stock helped contribute to higher property assessments and an increase in taxes — the assessed value percentage change dropped slightly this year to 6.55%, according to a March budget presentation.
The city council voted Monday to keep the real estate tax rate at $1.22 per $100 of valuation. The rate has not changed since 2015. Cobb said the council has kept the rate steady to “ride the wave” of the high valuations.
The city’s approach to fixing the problem
Boone said in an email that he had a meeting with city officials on April 23 and said the city is “highly focused on resolving the issues” within the planning department.
Taylor Stone, another local builder, said he had a separate meeting with other builders and Cobb last week.
“It was helpful for the mayor to hear that what is going on in the city is not normal,” Stone said via text this week.
Stone said he previously had a conversation with Catherine Gray, the city’s land use and urban design planner, and he suggested an “open house” for builders to come to the planning department with their documents for quicker approvals.
“If we were sitting right there together, we could start to expedite things because questions could be asked, answers could be given, and details could be worked out,” Stone said.
The city used to have a similar walk-in station for builders with simple remodel jobs that don’t require as many permits as larger projects, Cobb said.
Turner said Municipal Insights, an Ontario-based consultant that works with municipalities on tax policy, is doing a complete assessment of the planning department. She said the firm is conducting interviews and meeting with staff, council members, developers, architects and attorneys, and will make recommendations to city staff based on their assessment.
The city will pay Municipal Insights an estimated $25,000 for work from April until June, according to a contract that Cardinal News obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
On staffing, Turner said the city will need to start “training up,” or hiring individuals without robust experience and training them more extensively. She said in the meantime, at least two extra staffers from other areas — but more depending on the workload — are being made available to supplement the planning staff.
Cobb said the city is looking to streamline the process for smaller projects, like home remodels, so that those projects take “an appropriate amount of time.”
Turner said once the department is fully staffed, the city will hold more open houses for builders.
“We want our builders to understand that they are true partners, and we don’t want to be a hindrance,” Turner said in an interview last week. “We want to be a partner and support them. I know that there are some changes that need to be made, and I’m looking to do exactly that.”
