Williamson Road has long served the City of Roanoke, and the Valley at large, as an integral business district. The business district is an antiquated commercial area which faces a number of challenges which include “deteriorating curbing, guttering, and sidewalks; poor ingress and egress from businesses; excessive public and private signage; conflicts between pedestrians and automobiles; absence of any landscaping and other visual and pedestrian amenities; and obsolete commercial buildings which predate current zoning requirements. These conditions have an impact on the adjacent residential neighborhoods where over twenty five percent of the City’s population lives.”
