Radford City Council considers rezoning request
By WILLIAM PAINE
Patriot Publishing
Radford City Council’s second meeting of September was dominated by discussions over whether to grant a rezoning request made by members of New River Valley Community Action (NRVCA). The rezoning is controversial because NRVCA plans to rent several units to people who have a history of homelessness.
The meeting began with a citizen comment period in which Carla Howard accused the Department of Social Services of kidnapping her daughter in 2020. Howard, who was clearly emotional, also accused Radford City of wastefully spending several hundred thousand dollars on outside lawyers working for DSS since 2014.
In his public comment, Bill Fleisher told council of his concerns about the growing homeless population in Radford.
The public hearing concerning a rezoning request was one of three held during the evening.
The first public hearing focused on an evaluation report on Community Development Block Grant funds. According to City Manager Todd Meredith, total expenditures for the program in 2024, including prior year activities, is $263,949. Many of the programs deal with servicing the underprivileged population of Radford with much funding going to the unhoused community.
A second public hearing dealt with a $750,000 local match for a $3.5 million grant from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to develop the West Radford Commerce Park. The city’s contribution will be earmarked to purchase a transformer to install an electric utility substation at the site.
No one spoke at either of these public hearings, but the third public hearing, which followed a presentation by NRVCA CEO Jennifer Smith and Housing and Shelter Director Casey Edmonds, prompted reactions from several citizens.
Nearly two hours were spent discussing the pros and cons of allowing the first floor of a building, located at 212, 3rd Avenue, to be rezoned from B3 (business) to R4, allowing for multiple residences. The second floor of the building is already listed as R4 and houses several tenants.
As Smith explained, the NRVCA is requesting that zoning be changed to allow them to transform the bottom floor of the building into five affordable single bedroom housing units. If the zoning change is granted, the top floor would also be remodeled into 8 one-bedroom apartments.
The idea is to provide what Smith refers to as Permanent Supportive Housing for individuals with extremely low incomes. To move into one of these units, a person would need to meet two requirements. First, they must have a history of “chronic homelessness.” Secondly, they must be sober for six months prior to moving in.
Those moving in, most of whom would be collecting disability benefits, would pay rent that would be equivalent to 30 percent of their income. The NRVCA plans to spend $4 million on purchasing, then renovating the building, if the zone change passes. Edmonds and Smith insisted that this building dedicated to Permanent Supportive Housing would not negatively affect property values in the surrounding area and promoted this as a small-scale solution to Radford’s homeless problem, noting that 135 homeless individuals currently list Radford as their primary residence.
Edmonds said that NRVCA is already providing services to individuals who are on the list to move into the apartments. She also noted the average Social Security Income (SSI) benefits for an NRV resident is $973. The average cost for a single room occupancy apartment in the NRV is $950, making it nearly impossible for a disabled person to rent an apartment if SSI is their only source of income.
Several people expressed doubts about the project when given their turn to speak at the podium. Unlike the earlier public comment portion of the meeting, where a three-minute time limit was strictly enforced, individuals often spoke for several minutes before relinquishing the microphone.
Many of those who spoke, including Pastor Nelson Sifford of the Baptist church across the street from the building, expressed concerns about the safety of the neighborhood and problems with litter which might arise. Councilwoman Kelly Artrip asked whether tenants would be drug tested after they moved into the apartments and how troublesome tenants might be removed.
Smith answered that tenants would not be drug tested after they moved in, but services provided by NRVCA would be readily available to them, noting that their headquarters was across the street. She added that troublesome tenants would be evicted through the same process as anyone else renting an apartment in Radford.
Several people in the room expressed concerns about the type of individuals who would be living in the apartments.
“Let me give an personal example,” said Casey Edmonds. “My brother-in-law had an accident at 22 years old that left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He is on disability. This is for people like him who need housing. People who need to have a place to stay so that they can get other services that they need. People who want to live in a community. Just like you do. These are people who need these housing services. We want to be able to help them. We want to give them these wrap around services so that they can live with autonomy and dignity in our community.”
“Is housing these people and getting them off the street at night making your children more vulnerable than if they are out there roaming the street,” Keith Petry of the NRVCA asked council. “Wouldn’t putting them in housing make the city safer? I am six years clean from amphetamine addiction. I am also a convicted felon for drug use. After getting clean I got my degree in business management. I’m going to be in a program for my master’s degree in January. If I didn’t have the support from Community Action when I first got out of jail, I wouldn’t own my home. My cars wouldn’t be paid off. I wouldn’t have two dogs and I wouldn’t be married. If this was your family who needed help … what would you vote for?”
Petry’s husband, Jared Lawson, also expressed support for the zone change, but most all commentary afterward recommended council vote no on the zoning change.
Local businessman Keith Weltens and Brad Angel of Brad’s Barbershop expressed support for NRVCA in general, but urged council to vote no because it would negatively affect business.
Matt Hicks and Ben Bondurant, who own adjacent buildings with families expressed their concerns about the safety risk these tenants might pose, with Bondurant saying his tenants “were not thrilled with the idea.”
The City Council did not act on the issue but instead chose to wait for a recommendation from the Planning Commission whose members were present at the meeting.
In other business, the city board voted to set up an account and submit a Market Participation Application to PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that operates a wholesale electricity market for 13 states.
City leaders also voted to authorize the issuance of the $750,000 note to make the required match for the $3.5 million grant designed to revitalize the West Radford Commerce Park (formerly known as the Foundry).
Council voted to deviate from the state holiday schedule and adopt the holiday schedule created by Radford City.
City councilors also voted to accept a $17,650 DMV Selective Enforcement Grant, which will provide overtime pay for police officers and a $22,800 Police Traffic Services Grant, which will buy 3 radar units, two portable speed bumps and 2 LED road flair kits.
Radford City Council made three proclamations. The first declared the week of Oct. 5 – 11 as both Public Power Week and Fire Prevention Week. Finally, October was officially designated as Arts and Humanities month.
October 3, 2025 @ 8:04 am
First and foremost the nomenclature of the situation needs to be clarified, bums. We’re talking about bums here. Individuals who do not contribute to the overall betterment of the society around them, individuals who have a choice, as we all do, but make the wrong ones and somehow expect society to take pity on them. Why is it there’s never a shortage of cigarettes or smart phones amongst the bum population yet they need housing? Almost every blue-collar business in this valley needs workers, unskilled labor aka anyone who can show up on time, apply the most basic of work ethics, and repeat. We already have a community bus system that is hemorrhaging taxpayer money. There’s their ticket towards housing. Let us not forget that all of this is funded by the people who apply said skills on a daily basis, who have their salaries squandered by the government to support bums who don’t (not can’t) support themselves. Once these individuals are given (yes given) an apartment, how are they going to be held accountable? If eviction is required, no court will allow the system to evict them back to the street, so now society is stuck footing their bills forever. Where’s the plan in place to ensure they repay society for it’s kindness once income starts? Enough with the hand outs and hopes on a wish. Don’t punish the surrounding community by lowering property values, refit one of these old factory or warehouse buildings into a military-style barracks. Showers, decent beds, partitions for some privacy, security systems, and a kitchen to provide them with three hots a day. A bus to take them to the prearranged jobsite daily and return them, ensure they repay their debt, but if they want society’s help, its going to be bare bones as it should be. They get caught boozing or doping it up, haul them off in chains so every other bum can see what the accountability process looks like. Force them to take positive action for themselves. Society doesn’t owe you, them, or anyone a single thing except opportunity. They already have this, they aught to apply it for themselves and reap the benefits as we all do. Poor choices make for poor outcomes in life, if you have a sympathetic heart for such endeavors, open your personal doors to them, let them drain your well dry.
October 3, 2025 @ 3:40 pm
The lack of care and common decency in our society has gone too far. Reading this actually makes me physically upset at how little people care about others.