Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times

A Blacksburg resident and a commercial developer who did not want to be identified photographs supporters of Ordinance 1450 in front of the Blacksburg Municipal Building before Tuesday evening's council meeting.

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BLACKSBURG — It’s unanimous. Developers who want to build retail buildings larger than 80,000 square feet in Blacksburg must submit their plans to Town Council for an extra layer of review.

The 7-0 vote for Ordinance 1450 came after more than four hours of public comment, during which even elementary school students weighed in. Even council members and planning commissioners who outlined what they said were weaknesses, even flaws, in the much-debated ordinance, voted for it early this morning.

But not all were happy about it. Councilman and Planning Commissioner Paul Lancaster told the crowd that the weeks of rancorous debate and inflammatory rhetoric surrounding the ordinance had left him disillusioned and disappointed.  Afterwards, he discussed the possibility of tweaking it with other planning commissioners.

Councilman Don Langrehr proposed the ordinance shortly after Fairmount Properties of Ohio submitted concept plans in March for a 40-acre redevelopment project along South Main Street. Those plans included a big-box store now widely thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The ordinance requires that any developer that wishes to build a retail building larger than 80,000 square feet must apply for a special-use permit.

The council approved Fairmount’s redevelopment concept including retail and residential buildings in 2006 when it rezoned several acres of land to make way for it. But a proposed 186,000-square-foot big-box included on the site plan caused a backlash.

Established groups such as the Blacksburg Partnership and the Downtown Merchants of Blacksburg have taken sides in the debate, causing division within those groups. Partnership President Bill Aden said he worries some business people who now support the group with donations may be put off by the ordinance, which Aden said could be construed as a vote of no confidence in the work of the partnership. The partnership works to recruit retail and other businesses for the town.

At  least three other advocacy groups have formed around the ordinance. Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth, or BURG, and Concerned Parents of Margaret Beeks Students, support the ordinance and oppose a big box on the site, which borders the school’s playground. The parents group demonstrated outside town hall before the meeting. And some of them, including the students, commented during the meeting.

Several members of the newly-formed Citizens Against Ordinance 1450 also spoke.  The group hired a survey firm to drum up opposition to the ordinance through mass phone calls, and council members, including Tom Sherman, chastised them for their efforts. Sherman called the effort “shameful.”

Depending on who is speaking, Blacksburg’s ordinance could protect struggling homegrown businesses and the small-town charm of Blacksburg. Or it could mean the death of the town’s aspirations to build its retail tax base and stem the outflow of local retail dollars. A study recently commissioned by the council estimates the town loses $140 million in trade annually to surrounding retail centers, including Christiansburg and Roanoke.

This local debate about the power of global chain stores to change a small town echoes other regulatory fights playing out across the country in fast-growing communities. Dozens of local governments are considering or have passed ordinances regulating the size of retail stores in their borders.

Locally, Lynchburg City Council recently tabled an ordinance similar to the one Blacksburg is considering. In Roanoke County, any retail building larger than 50,000 square feet requires a special use permit approved by the Board of Supervisors.

But such ordinances don’t necessarily block Wal-Marts or other big-boxes from moving into a community. In October, Roanoke County supervisors approved such a permit for a Wal-Mart Supercenter planned for the Clearbrook area.

Despite Wednesday morning’s vote, the fight is not over. Now it shifts to the Montgomery County Circuit Court. The South Main developers and landowners have asked the court to uphold what the developers call their “vested rights” to develop the property under the rezoning, which they say trumps the newly-passed ordinance.

“We continue to believe it doesn’t affect our project,” said Jim Cowan, an attorney for Fairmount. The ordinance “is not good for the overall town.”

A hearing is scheduled for the first week in June.