Big box and medium-sized retail stores would also be crucial to making any development economically worthwhile, consultants say.

The additional time may also play in favor of efforts to salvage the park’s caretaker’s cottage.

When the lease ended, the city had sought proposals for the former fire station, which is in need of significant repairs.

The city intends to pay to cross railroad tracks on which rail enthusiasts hope to run a tourist-attracting excursion train.

“I have ran out of patience with these people loitering and what they’re doing,” Mayor Sherman Lea said about those in street medians.

Melrose Athletic Club, which runs Champ’s Gym, is in a legal battle with the city, which insists the group vacate a former Southeast Roanoke fire station.

Council members say the spending isn’t extravagant — there’s just not enough money in each member's budget for travel.

The sudden activism around the cottage prompted visible frustration among some city leaders and members of City Council.

Roanoke is planning a $13 million upgrade of the recreation center, the largest spending project the parks department has ever undertaken.

City Council’s advocacy against police reform laws sparked controversy and spurred some departures from the board.

Roanoke has steered more than $2.5 million to a gang outreach team, the police department and grants for nonprofits and churches.

City Council extended its sale of the cottage and 1.1 acres of parkland through September, allowing more time for a new rezoning.

Some members of Roanoke City Council say a deal over the Fishburn Park caretaker's cottage could still be worked out.

Roanoke has earmarked $3.25 million for the construction of a new pool to replace the one built in 1976.

Sometimes called “a moral document,” a city’s budget may be its most important plan and one on which citizens can have a direct impact.

Plans for the parking corrals come about a year after officials had hoped to bring the matter before City Council.

You have questions. We have answers.

McCadden founded the Melrose-Rugby Neighborhood Forum in the early 1990s as a way for residents to address problems plaguing the neighborhood.