BLACKSBURG -- It was a record-setting night for citizen participation in the town, and it took rumors of a Wal-Mart Supercenter and the now well-known Ordinance 1450 to do it.

Tuesday's joint town council and planning commission meeting stretched over five hours and into Wednesday. Before it was finished, more than 200 people packed into the municipal building and 103 citizens spoke their minds -- the overwhelming majority supporting the ordinance. Many others gathered in front of televisions at Awful Arthur's on Draper Road and at remote viewing sites at the Blacksburg Police Department and the municipal building. By Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,000 people had watched the meeting via the town's Web cast service, Town Manager Marc Verniel said.

About 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, the council cast a vote, approving the ordinance unanimously. It adds another governmental layer of regulation for retail buildings larger than 80,000 square feet. That could have an impact on a South Main Street development that started the whole hubbub over the ordinance -- a development that includes a big box store that's rumored to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Supporters of the ordinance were joyful and were headed downtown to celebrate after the Wednesday vote. Daniel Breslau, chairman of the pro-1450 group Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth, called the ordinance "a great start." Now that the council has passed it, many of the group's members would be "delighted" to participate in fine tuning the ordinance, perhaps even strengthening it, Breslau said.

Both Paul Lancaster and Tom Sherman criticized the ordinance, but voted to approve it anyway. Before the vote, Lancaster decried the tactics employed by those on both sides of the issue.

"While the debate tonight has been reasonably civilized, the lies, distortions, hyperbole and venom on both sides has left me disillusioned and have left this town wounded," he said.

Sherman also criticized the ordinance, saying that as written, "it may promote the worst kind of strip development."

But those and other misgivings were not enough to cause council members, three of whose seats are up for re-election next year, to swim against the tide of public opinion.

People on both sides of the issue agreed on one thing: The town council's approval of the regulation will not put an end to the swirling debate.

Looming largest among ongoing issues is a pre-emptive lawsuit filed in May against the town by Fairmount Properties of Ohio to protect its planned 40-acre retail project, including the big-box store, from further government regulation. A hearing in the case is scheduled for June 5.

Town staff must figure out how the ordinance might apply to Fairmount's project and a planned expansion of Kroger in the Gables Shopping Center.

The ordinance, proposed by Councilman Don Langrehr shortly after Fairmount submitted the site plan showing a big-box store, requires any developer wishing to build a retail structure larger than 80,000 square feet to apply for a special use permit that would need the council's approval.

That requirement could add two months or more to the town's already lengthy and complex development process. Even small additions to existing structures could trigger the ordinance, critics say. And it allows the council to place special conditions on such projects, which economic development advocates say will discourage retail growth in Blacksburg.

In between congratulatory hugs from supporters after the vote Wednesday, Langrehr said 1450 will simply and effectively "protect the town from the gross excesses of overexuberant growth."

Retired Mayor Roger Hedgepeth was in the minority of speakers. He told council members he suspected some officials "secretly wish you'd never heard of Ordinance 1450." He asked them to vote against it and warned it would "become a gorilla on your backs."

And economic development advocates worry.

"It will make our job much more difficult," said Bill Aden, president of the Blacksburg Partnership. The partnership is made up of developers and businesspeople who work with town and Virginia Tech officials to encourage retail stores and other companies to locate in Blacksburg.

Aden has also said he fears the ordinance may be seen as a vote of no confidence in the group's projects over the past few years, "which would be a tragedy," he said.

The fight over the ordinance has caused division, setting members of established community groups against one another and pitting neighbor against neighbor, Mayor Ron Rordam said. On Wednesday, Rordam told leaders of the groups to soon expect a call from him, asking for their help in finding common interests that will guide the town's future development.