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Don Langrehr's right to be on the Blacksburg Town Council ballot is being challenged by a principal supporter of three of his opponents.

But the commonwealth's attorney and a state election official said zoning - the issue at the heart of the challenge - does not affect ballot eligibility.

Jeanne Stosser, a prominent developer who lives in Montgomery County but has significant business interests in Blacksburg, said Wednesday that Langrehr's residence, the basement of a duplex he owns at 212-214 Ellett Road, does not conform to Blacksburg's zoning ordinance. Based on building permits she obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Stosser said Langrehr had created a triplex in an area zoned only for single or double units.

"Since occupying this storage area for residential purposes would be illegal, it seems to me that to register this storage area as a residential address should disqualify Donald Langrehr from being considered as a resident of the town of Blacksburg and should disqualify him from being eligible to vote or run for public office," Stosser wrote in an e-mail to The Roanoke Times.

The challenge to Langrehr adds a new twist to a hard-fought race for three at-large council seats that could determine - among other issues - if the town proceeds with the controversial Toms Creek sewer project. Langrehr is one of four candidates on the ballot, and one of three who oppose the sewer. Two pro-sewer write-in candidates are also campaigning.

"It's unfortunate that people who consider me to be their opponent would attempt to disparage my character," Langrehr said Wednesday. "I believe the people in Blacksburg are intelligent enough to discern the motive and agenda for this action on the part of a developer in town."

Stosser has very publicly backed write-in candidates Toby Rock and Frances Parsons, a long-time councilwoman who decided to seek a ninth term after the ballot deadline passed, and incumbent J.B. Jones. Rock and Parsons said this week that they thought Langrehr had been dishonest about his residency.

Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Joey Showalter and an official at the Virginia State Board of Elections said state law treats voter registration and ballot eligibility as separate from zoning.

"It appears to me that he has done what needs to be done" to register to vote and run for office in Blacksburg, Showalter said.

A homeless person could register to vote or run for office using the address of "the grate where they sleep every night," said Barbara Cockrell, the state's assistant secretary for elections and training.

State law does not allow a challenge to a voter's registration to go forward within 30 days of a local election.

Langrehr bought the duplex two years ago but said he lived in it only during his run for mayor two years ago and since February, when he turned in his paperwork to be on the May 4 council ballot. He continues to rent a cottage in Montgomery County where he lived when not in Blacksburg.

He is building a house in Blacksburg and said it should be completed this summer.

Langrehr sublets the duplex's basement from his first-floor tenant, one of two renters he has in the building.

The zoning question hinges on whether there is interior access - in this case a stairway - between living areas and the common areas of a housing unit. Langrehr said Wednesday that there is no interior stair linking the basement and first floor, but that he was unaware there was any problem with having someone live in each. Because the two areas had shared utilities since before he bought it, he had assumed they were part of the same unit, he said.

Stosser said she plans to pursue her challenge to Langrehr after next week's election in hopes of unseating him if he wins.