Fairmount Properties of Ohio can build a big-box store widely thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Blacksburg without further governmental regulation, a Montgomery County judge has ruled.

Town officials were notified this morning by letter that Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk has rejected  the Town Council’s effort to regulate the building of a big-box store on property next to Margaret Beeks Elementary School on Country Club Drive.

“Obviously I am disappointed,” Town Attorney Larry Spencer wrote in an e-mail a short time ago. Spencer’s e-mail went on to state that he would confer with the council on the possibility of appealing the case to the Supreme Court of Virginia. If it goes before the high court, the case could set precedent on governmental handling of development.

The council approved a rezoning in 2006 that paved the way for Fairmount's 40-acre retail redevelopment project called "First & Main." But in 2007 when the developer submitted preliminary site plans showing a 186,000-square-foot store on a site previously slated for residential development, the council passed its now well-publicized Ordinance 1450, and sought to apply it to the Fairmount project. The ordinance requires special council approval for any retail building larger than 80,000 square feet.

Fairmount then filed suit asking Turk to block the council from applying the ordinance to its project. The judge ordered that the town's zoning administrator and then its Board of Zoning Appeals should rule on the issue first. Turk’s decision made public today affirms a ruling handed down in June by the town's zoning board. The zoning board reversed a decision made by the zoning administrator, who ruled that Ordinance 1450 could be applied to the Fairmount project.