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Downtown development needn't cause a parking nightmare

Jeremy Holmes

Holmes is the program director of RIDE Solutions in Roanoke.

Recent days have seen two interesting developments for downtown Roanoke. The first was the welcome announcement that Ed Walker, father of the Cotton Mill Lofts and the Hancock Building, has purchased the redoubtable Patrick Henry Hotel. Walker made clear in his morning press conference that, whatever else happens with the building, we could count on at least 100 new apartments being at the core of the project, significantly growing downtown's residential capacity.

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There's one sure way William Fleming principal Susan Willis can back up her claim that she did not cheat and deserves her job back: Release the transcript and recommendation from the panel investigating the claim.

We are planning an editorial for tomorrow that urges Willis to do so. The Roanoke School Board cannot say anything about a personnel matter. Willis told Roanoke Times reporter Courtney Cutright that she feels vindicated. There's a one, good way to verify that.

For tomorrow: Roanoke City Council on Monday directed the city attorney to start the process of placing a protection easement on most of Mill Mountain. Council agreed a survey, estimated to cost about $60,000 is needed, and seemed in agreement that the summit -- the most controversial piece -- should be left out of the discussion.

We think if you're going to spend that kind of money and put the mountain through a rigorous public debate, and continue to entertain ideas of running a tram up its slope, then you ought to talk about the entire mountain.

We're working on an editorial about the upcoming improvements on the Market. We will stay our course of urging the city to communicate with those affected.

While the Market Building will need to shut down for the renovations, vendors there have known this for some time. The city should help them relocate.

As to the open-air Market vendors, great care must be taken to provide space for this activity to continue while changes are made to their spaces and renovations occur at Center in the Square.

Communication and cooperation will work to all's advantage.

Also on Thursday, we'll hail the news that local developer Ed Walker has bought the historic Patrick Henry Hotel in downtown Roanoke and plans to restore the abandoned building and convert it into rental apartments and business space.

Thursday, we'll have an editorial that supports the Roanoke housing authority board in setting a deadline on its 10-year-old offer to give a neighborhood development group a piece of commercial property in Gainsboro -- if the group will develop something on it. The lot's still vacant. Perhaps the urgency of a deadline will spark action.

We're working on an editorial about the surprise announcement by Gov. Tim Kaine that Roanoke City Council has agreed to place a conservation easement on Mill Mountain.

The news came as a surprise to all, as council has not discussed this -- at least in public -- as it should have, nor had it discussed the protection zone with the parties who would need to be involved in creating and accepting an easement.

Still, the idea for some time has held merit for most of the mountain. It's the developed top and whether it should be developed further that draws controversy. The top should not be left out of the discussion.

We are writing an editorial that will run later in the week about news that the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the city of Roanoke are far behind on building low-income housing they committed to putting up.

Which is the nice way of saying they haven't completed any of the 50 low-income rental units spread around the city.  They originally had seven years to deliver, but four have already passed without action, and the person to whom they committed is justifiably upset.

In our editorial, we will urge the city and the RRHA to get building.  They signed a deal to do this, and have a moral obligation to fulfill it.

For Friday we'll write about the controversy at William Byrd High School where one parent objected that the school's library carries the novel, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky. The parent's child did not check out the book nor was he assigned to read it.

The county policy requiring three librarians to read, review and recommend whether the book should be reshelved is underway. We find it troubling that a teacher might be in trouble for recommending a book found in the library.

For tomorrow: Roanoke City Council in a split vote Monday agreed to spend $1.5 million out of its planned capital bond issuance on improvements to Countryside Golf Course. They needed to make the commitment in order to ink a contract with an undisclosed firm to manage the golf course under undisclosed terms.

Council needs to take a second vote on this expenditure. It would be great if they'd share with the public figures that would explain how much taxpayers will be paying to subsidize this course. City management will, as usual, say it doesn't legally have to disclose anything until it signs a contract. We will, as usual, say that they should.