Fishburn Park Caretaker’s Cottage amended proposal heads to the Roanoke City Council meeting

Roanoke, Virginia – The ambitious plan conceived by Justin and Keri vanBlaricom to convert the erstwhile Fishburn Park Caretaker’s Cottage into a café met a temporary setback in May. The Roanoke City Council, in a 6-1 decision, opposed their proposal to rezone the 1.1-acre property.

The journey has been challenging, admits Justin. “It’s a bit of a roller coaster for sure. We go back and forth of should we give up or should we not,” he confessed. The vanBlaricoms have held a contract with the city for this property since the fall of 2022, intending to rezone 0.6 acres for the café and leave the remaining land as open space in Fishburn Park. Recent discussions have centered around reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Justin revealed their approach to resolve the impasse, stating, “We went back to figure out what we could do to salvage the deal. And we think we came up with a win-win solution for everybody to still have the intent of what we were trying to do with the coffee shop, but still stick to the original contract.”

The proposed amendments to the agreement include giving the city priority to purchase the property if the vanBlaricoms decide to sell it. It would also extend the closing date on the purchase from June 30th to September 30th. Moreover, the contract would stipulate that 0.6 acres would be allocated for the café and the remaining 0.5 acres would be preserved as recreational and open space.

Justin elaborated on the intent behind the amendments, saying, “It’s a little more confidence that it’s not going to be used for anything else, that was not our intention in the first place. …We felt like we could get more support if we gave the opportunity for the city to buy it back if we ever wanted to sell it in the future.”

However, the opposition to the contract mainly concerns the 0.5 acres of open space incorporated in the sale. The vanBlaricoms plan to invest $150,000 into the cottage, making the full 1.1 acres crucial in the event of unexpected circumstances.

City Council member Stephanie Moon Reynolds expressed her reservations, “I do agree with adding in the city’s first right of refusal, I do like that piece. But I’m just not comfortable with, if they do not produce what they want to do with that property, that they have that right to sell it off. And then you’re not knowing what else could become of it.”

According to Moon Reynolds, the verbal assurance of the vanBlaricoms that the 0.5 acres would remain open space is insufficient to sway her vote. She would only support a proposal that sells the 0.6 acres for the café and leaves the remaining land as city property.

Nonetheless, the vanBlaricoms remain hopeful about realizing their vision. Justin expressed, “We feel like we’ve been willing to compromise our position to make this thing happen and give up on some things to make sure that people feel like they were heard. But ultimately, we still want to push forward and until we can’t push anymore. …We can’t make everybody happy, but we’re trying to do it in the best way possible that we can have a sustainable business that is there for a long time. So that’s, that’s our hope, and we’d love love support and love people to voice that support.”

The proposed amendments are slated for consideration at the City Council’s 2 p.m. session on Tuesday. If approved, Justin noted, they would need to submit a rezoning request by June 26, which would then be evaluated by the planning commission and city council in August.