Having a mountain in your city can lead to all sorts of questions: Should it be protected like a wilderness? Developed to include city amenities such as a restaurant or coffee shop? Or maybe some combination of the two?

Those questions about the future of Mill Mountain will soon be addressed by the Roanoke City Council, which will hear a report Monday on a proposed conservation easement on much of the mountain.

The easement would prohibit development of about 550 acres of wooded slopes that have been part of a city park since the 1940s.

Planners say the easement will not include the summit, about 20 acres of mostly open land that includes a zoo, visitor's center, picnic area, parking lots and Roanoke's iconic neon star.

"We know we're going to have a doughnut hole," said Roger Holnback, executive director of the Western Virginia Land Trust, one of the agencies involved in drafting the easement. "There will be an area at the top of the mountain that won't be under an easement.

"The question is: where is the boundary of that area?'

Nearly 300 Roanoke residents have weighed in on the easement issue, either by attending two public input meetings in March or by completing an online survey conducted by the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

Ninety-three percent said they believe portions of Mill Mountain need protection; 82 percent felt a conservation easement is the best way to do that, according to a report included with the council's meeting agenda.

Rockledge revisited?

In recent years, plans for the topmost portion of Mill Mountain have stirred fierce public debate.

Valley Forward, a group of young professionals, proposed in 2007 a restaurant, community center and coffee shop to be housed in a 10,000-square-foot building between the star and the zoo. Dubbed Rockledge, the idea was pitched as a cultural and economic boon by advocates. Opponents panned it as a blemish to the city's most scenic park.

Although the plans have been put on hold indefinitely, Rockledge could once again become an issue during discussions of the conservation easement.

Depending on where the easement line is drawn, a restaurant such as the one proposed by Valley Forward could fall into the no-development zone that an easement would create.

The Mill Mountain Conservancy, a community group opposed to the Rockledge project, favors a boundary line that would follow a sidewalk that runs from the star observation deck to a second observation deck to the Discovery Center, said Gail Burruss, a spokeswoman for the group.

As proposed in 2007, the restaurant would sit just downhill from the sidewalk -- and within the conservation easement if the line is drawn to suit opponents of the development.

However, Councilman Rupert Cutler envisions the unprotected area at the top of the mountain to be large enough to include the Rockledge site.

"It would be like a big gerrymander" to exclude the site, Cutler said.

Cutler, who is taking the lead on council in planning the conservation easement, said he hopes the Rockledge controversy will not dominate dialogue about the rest of the mountain.

"To the extent that the summit is already excluded, discussion of additional development in that area is kind of moot," he said.

Forever is a long time

In a report that council will review Monday, the Parks and Recreation Department included two maps with potential easement boundaries. One adopts a summit area identified by the city's Mill Mountain Management Plan, which would put under easement a portion of the land planned for Rockledge.

A second map, recommended by city staffers, puts the entire restaurant area within the easement, following the route favored by the mountain conservancy group. That option also allows more room for an expansion of the Mill Mountain Zoo.

Steve Buschor, parks and recreation director, said both easement boundaries are conceptual and could change based on council's wishes.

And even if the Rockledge area falls within the conservation easement, the document could be written in a way to allow such a development in the future.

"The most challenging part of a conservation easement is being able to have a crystal ball to understand and determine what uses may come along in the future," Buschor said.

There are no current development plans for the slopes of the mountain, the 550 or so acres that everyone agrees would be covered by the easement. Deed covenants and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places already give the land some protection. A conservation easement would enact legal protections forever.

Plans subject to approval

Even if the easement does not affect the Rockledge site, the project would still face the same challenges that existed in 2008, when plans were placed on hold amid intense public debate.

At the time, the Mill Mountain Advisory Committee was considering the proposal. A recommendation by the committee would not bind city council, which would have had the final say.

Any proposal to develop the mountain would also require approval from a Circuit Court judge and would depend in part on the blessing of the four heirs of J.B. Fishburn, the late Roanoke businessman who owned the land before giving it to the city decades ago to be used as a park.

The Fishburn heirs said in 2008 that they would abide by the decision of the advisory committee, even though they opposed development on the mountain.

Robert Fralin, chairman of Valley Forward, said last week that the Rockledge project remains in limbo because of land title issues.

"Until the Fishburn heirs collectively grant our city council the power to decide the fate of the mountain's developable area, the project will stay on hold," Fralin said.

"We continue to be perplexed and disappointed that the Fishburns will not allow the citizens to decide the future of the land by way of our elected officials," he said.

"The Fishburns have clearly chosen to ignore democracy."

Louise Kegley, one of the heirs, said that while some family members have strong opinions, they are willing to let the process work through the advisory committee and city council.

"We really don't have a say-so, it's just my opinion," said Kegley, who sits on the advisory committee."We're not holding up the democratic process."

At the request of the Mill Mountain Garden Club, which maintains the wildflower garden atop the mountain, Kegley recently polled the other three Fishburn heirs about the proposed easement.

All four are in total support of an easement.

"In other words, make the excluded area as small as possible so there is no room whatsoever to slip in a building anywhere on the mountain," Kegley wrote in a statement to the club.

Steve Higgs, chairman of the Mill Mountain Advisory Committee, worries that a conservation easement is not the best way to manage public land. Such tools are helpful for private landowners who want to protect their property after they die. But governments can manage their land forever, said Higgs, who added that he was speaking as an individual and not as chairman of the advisory committee.

When Roanoke was first established 125 years ago, no one would have imagined that airplanes, televisions or computers might someday exist. And if technology ever advances to the point that electricity could be transmitted by microwave from high points, Higgs said, a conservation easement on the mountain might make that impossible.

"God knows, I am not smart enough to figure out what is going to be important 100 years from now, much less 1,000 years from now," Higgs said.

Decision possible by July

Plans for an easement got a kickstart in October, when then-Gov. Tim Kaine announced that most of the mountain would be placed under protection with the unanimous agreement of the city council.

Although Kaine said it would be done by the end of 2009, the process has taken much longer.

The city must work with two agencies that will hold co-title to the easement, the Western Virginia Land Trust and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. The Mill Mountain Advisory Committee will make a recommendation, and council will likely hold a public hearing.

Cutler said he hopes the process will be completed by the time he leaves council in July.

The councilman said every time he looks up at Mill Mountain and sees "its beauty and iconic appeal to the city, I feel very good about the progress we're making toward a conservation easement that will protect it in perpetuity."