An architectural and engineering firm's presentation Monday to the Roanoke City Council could add at least a dash of clarity to a long-simmering and chronically crusty debate about the future of the historic City Market Building downtown.

Going into Monday's public meeting, most stakeholders -- including vendors, city administrators, city politicians and customers -- agree that the city-owned-and-managed circa-1922 building has been a victim of time and neglect and needs a makeover of some sort.

Otherwise, consensus has been as rare as decision-making. In January, the city council allocated $120,000 to pay Cunningham Quill Architects, based in Washington, D.C., to craft designs as well as preliminary cost estimates for the building's renovation and reuse. The council also directed the company to inspect electrical, plumbing, mechanical and other systems and to assess the building's structural condition.

On Monday, Cunningham Quill will present concepts and cost estimates only, said Brian Townsend, assistant city manager for community development.

He said the meeting is not intended to yield a decision final enough to trigger blueprints. But the presentation should help define options and inform council debate about how a cash-strapped city in the midst of a recession could finance the makeover.

Similar discussion about capital projects occurred earlier this month as the council considered consultants' recommendations to site a new amphitheater in Elmwood Park.

Several of the City Market's food court vendors and shop owners plan to attend Monday's meeting. Among them will be Anita Wilson, co-owner of Burger in the Square and a longtime advocate for small businesses in the market building. In the perfect world, she said, "we could keep our restaurants and enlarge them, have some extended hours and more seating."

Ideally, she said, any renovations would require a shutdown of only a month "or two months, tops."

And she said she hopes a makeover plan would include financial assistance to help the small businesses survive for a short time without revenue.

Food vendors and small retailers in the building have become increasingly frustrated as they continue to operate without knowing what might happen to their businesses if major renovations proceed.

Meanwhile, the city continues to try to find a way to get more out of the centerpiece building in the historic area.

Among a host of other ideas, there has been discussion, for example, of bringing new life to the building's second floor, which has potential as a meeting hall and event venue. Some favor bringing produce sales back to the building, either inside or out. Most market building vendors now cope with month-to-month leases, a situation the business owners say limits their ability to plan for or sell their businesses.

One longtime vendor, David "Chico" Estrada, has already closed. He sold his pizza stand to a buyer already established in the building. Juan Garcia, co-owner of Paradiso Cuban Restaurant, said Wednesday that he is contemplating leaving.

Years of debate about the building intensified last year as the striking new Taubman Museum of Art headed toward opening and health inspectors found evidence in September of a mouse infestation and health code violations inside the market building.

Previous studies have included one completed for $100,000 by Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. The Roanoke Valley Development Foundation and the Roanoke Valley Development Corp. paid an undisclosed amount to the prestigious Project for Public Spaces to develop plans for the building's future.

Cunningham Quill said its design process would include careful review of those studies.

Monday's meeting will start at 2 p.m. in the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building.