Village Centers
To attract a sustainable population and create vibrant residential areas, the City of Roanoke’s Vision 2001-2020 Plan calls for higher density, mixed-use neighborhoods utilizing small village centers. The centers would be the focal point for economic and civic life in the neighborhoods. Neighborhoods would offer a variety of housing types and rent levels to attract diverse residents.

Roanoke strategically targets considerable resources into small areas to make a big impact. One such program is Southeast by Design. This new program funnels a wide variety of funding resources to a specific neighborhood, with Southeast being the first neighborhood recipient. The city partnered with faith-based organizations, action groups, civic groups, law enforcement, neighborhood groups, business leaders, and housing providers to improve the overall quality of life throughout this neighborhood. Specific initiatives to date include traffic calming, reduction of crime, reduction of code violations, new housing construction, homeowner rehabilitation, business façade improvements, and the opening of a police substation.

Future land use plans developed as part of neighborhood plans identify appropriate housing densities based on proximity to village centers and existing land use patterns.

Roanoke was the location for the first C2C Home Design and Construction Competition, based on sustainability principals set forth in the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart. Winning entries were selected based on their comfort, beauty, cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability.

The Roanoke Regional Housing Network, a committee of the Council for Community Services, sponsored the project. More than 3,000 professional and student architects engaged in the project, with nearly 600 entries from 60 architecture schools in 30 counties.

In September 2007, city officials, affordable housing advocates, and others gathered on Gilmer Avenue in Roanoke to officially open the first house built from a 2004 competition to encourage affordable and environmentally friendly building. It was built under the cradle-to-cradle philosophy, which calls for the use of "green" building materials and methods such as solar energy, and synthetic and recycled materials that will do less harm to the environment than more traditional construction.

The modular home, designed by Roanoke architects Stephen Feather and Richard Rife and constructed by Southern Heritage Homes, emerged from a 2004 competition to serve as a model for what could be done with the C2C philosophy.