Three big apartment complexes account for most of the 1,400 housing units developing or proposed in Roanoke during the past year, according to city documents.
Zoning changes enacted one year ago are making a difference, though slight, to increase the supply of housing in Roanoke, planning staff said Tuesday.
Between March 2024 and March 2025, submissions were made for 1,411 total housing units in Roanoke, according to a compilation of building permits and other planning documents requested by The Roanoke Times.
“Not all these are permitted yet,” said Wayne Leftwich, city planning manager. “They’re all in the system, in some form of process.”
A few of those units might not be approved by city staff or review boards, and probably more of them will not proceed by choice of the developer, he said. But the tally suggests that a dent is being made in Roanoke’s housing shortage, a deficit that has been measured in thousands of units, Leftwich said.
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“Developers are starting to realize the need and demand for housing,” Leftwich said. “I do think we are starting to move the needle. But we do know it took us years to get here, and it’ll take years to get out of it.”
Accounting for more than half of that total are 768 new apartments slated for 16 buildings on Orange Avenue, at the intersection of Mecca Street Northeast. That project, the largest multifamily housing development in Roanoke’s history, was approved in 2023 and is under development.
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In southeast Roanoke, permitting is pending for 267 apartments in a 237,000-square foot building on the grounds of the old Viscose textile plant. That’s part of a larger project by developer Ed Walker to convert the old industrial land into a new neighborhood center called Riverdale.
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Another large-scale apartment complex is under review, and has been in the works since as early as 2019, according to city documents. Hershberger Meadows proposes to bring 170 units into 14 new buildings near the corner of Williamson and Hershberger roads in northwest Roanoke.
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New single-dwelling units — which used to be called single-family housing, prior to changes enacted last year — appear to be trending upward as well, after a long gap following the Great Recession of 2008, Leftwich said. There were 127 single-dwelling units applied for between March ‘24 and ‘25, compared to fewer than 100 such homes in years prior.
“From about 2009 until probably five years ago, there were about 10 years where very little was happening,” Leftwich said. “It may take us that long to fully meet the demand, but we do hope that some of these changes are helpful to people, and we get more people that are able to help build up our housing market supply.”
The changes that Leftwich refers to include an overhaul of the city’s residential zoning code, which caused some stir last year among neighbors for its elimination of single-family housing designations.
The idea in doing so is to encourage creation of more duplexes, corner apartments and carriage homes to increase housing density in landlocked, built-out Roanoke. Planners call those smaller home styles “missing middle housing,” because they’re in high demand with low supply compared to more expensive, full-sized conventional homes.
“Our attempt there was following best practices from across the country to make sure that our regulations aren’t in the way of the housing market,” Leftwich said. “We want some of these types of housing — missing middle in particular — to be built, and we don’t want our zoning to keep that from happening.”
In the year since those zoning changes were enacted in March 2024, it’s led to 36 additional units, most of which are from one mid-rise apartment project on Richelieu Avenue in south Roanoke, according to the housing inventory list.
“These are the tight numbers we expected we would see,” Leftwich said. “With the missing middle housing, we kind of opened the door to make it a little bit easier for smaller developers, even individual property owners, to do some of this work.”
If the zoning text amendments are allowed to continue, Leftwich said he expects to see more applications for duplexes, accessory dwelling units, and other missing middle housing popping up in places across the city.
But there is potential for the city council, a majority of which are new members who started this year, to roll back those changes. Or a lawsuit that was filed by citizens opposing the changes could shake things up through the court system.
Anthony Stavola, one of the residents who is suing to repeal the zoning amendments, said Tuesday there is a need for more housing in Roanoke, but eliminating single-family zoning was not the way to do it.
“We do not feel these amendments are going to be effective at addressing the needs of the city,” Stavola said. “We are very concerned that we are going to see possibly unintended consequences that lead to the development of more expensive housing options and replacing older, smaller, more affordable housing.”
Stavola and others are awaiting a day in court to argue their case, after city attorneys last week filed to dismiss the complaints.
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“There are better approaches,” Stavola said. “We remain hopeful that our new city council and our new city manager will be willing to engage in a meaningful conversation to help us find a solution that can allow for more housing that’s needed, but do it in a way that’s at scale with respect to the neighborhoods.”
All to say, housing is no simple matter, and there is no clearly defined solution. It will take different approaches, various price points from affordable to luxury, and years of effort to make up for Roanoke’s supply shortage, Leftwich said.
“We are a community that wants to continue to grow,” Leftwich said. “We want to continue to have a diverse, healthy, affordable housing market, and build around our amazing neighborhood centers.”
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Luke Weir (540) 566-8917
Three large developments combine for more than 1,200 apartments in Roanoke
Orange Avenue Apartments: 768 units, 16 buildings.
Riverdale apartments: 267 units, 237,000-square foot building.
Hershberger Meadows apartments: 170 total units, 14 buildings.
Total: 1,205 units.