Roanoke City Council will vote Monday whether to appropriate $160,000 for a new study of renovations to the City Market Building.

It will mark the second time in just more than three years that the city has gone to an outside consultant for ideas to upgrade and reinvigorate the aging structure.

If the council votes for the study, Cunningham and Quill Architects, a Washington firm, will hold three public meetings to solicit ideas, as well as evaluate the 87-year-old building's structural, mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems. The firm will then develop three concepts for the market building renovation, along with cost estimates for each.

After more public input, Cunningham and Quill would then develop a final concept to be presented by May.

The city council has periodically discussed renovation of the deteriorating market building for several years, but the closure of the facility in September due to a mouse infestation spurred more discussion about the issue. Last month, Anita Wilson, a co-owner of Burger in the Square and a representative for other food court vendors, told the city council the closure and resulting publicity had badly damaged business, with revenues falling 40 percent to 60 percent since then.

Wilson said Friday that she planned on attending Monday's council meeting to see more details about the new proposal.

"We just want some consideration in the process," Wilson said.

Vice Mayor Sherman Lea and Councilman Court Rosen both said they want to make sure there are adequate opportunities for vendors and the public to voice their opinions about the market building's future.

"It's a major priority with us," Lea said.

But the two council members also said they will be asking questions about past studies of the building.

"I just want to make sure, because council has had a lot of turnover, [with] many of us new and the longest-serving member being the vice mayor, that we're not just pulling the trigger," Rosen said. "I want to make certain we're not just rushing in when we very well may have the information at our fingertips."

In the fall of 2005, the city paid Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. $100,000 for a plan that it described as bringing a New Orleans feel to the market area.

Among other things, it would have turned around the food vendors so that their entrances were all from the outside, added balconies to the second floor of the building, and would have moved the farmers' vending spaces to the center of Market Street. That plan was never adopted, although the council has discussed pieces of it in recent years.

In September, a group calling itself the Coalition for the Roanoke City Market made its own proposal. It would have eliminated the mezzanine level and shifted the market vendors to a more retail-focused business model.

The $7 million proposal would have required upfront funding from the city, although the coalition asserted half of that could probably be recovered through tax credits.

At the time, Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend said the committee that evaluated the proposal felt it represented "too radical a change" for the building, and city council rejected the plan.

The next month, the city advertised for a new consultant. In a letter to city council for Monday's meeting, City Manager Darlene Burcham said 11 companies submitted their qualifications and five finalists were interviewed by a five-member committee that included one person outside city staff.

They selected Cunningham and Quill Architects "as most qualified for the proposed work."