BLACKSBURG -- What started out as a developer's fight against government regulation this week turned into an expensive legal skirmish between the town council and its board of zoning appeals.

On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to ask a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge to overturn a zoning board decision that could empower an Ohio developer to build a big-box retail store such as a Wal-Mart on Country Club Drive.

On hearing about the council's decision, longtime resident Morton Nadler expressed his disapproval this way: "Oh, the idiots."

Nadler said the zoning board -- on which his wife, Isabel Berney, serves -- was correct in its ruling last month to allow the big-box project to move forward, so an appeal is a waste of taxpayer money that may delay much-needed projects, such as improvements to the town's senior citizens center.

The council has already spent about $77,000 in legal fees to fight a suit filed by the developer, Fairmount Properties of Ohio, and its local partners, according to Town Attorney Larry Spencer. The appeal of the zoning board decision is sure to push those costs well above $100,000, Spencer wrote in an e-mail.

The town has hired Greg Haley of Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore in Roanoke to work on the case. Stan Barnhill,  of Woods Rogers  in Roanoke, represents The Roanoke Times.

Mayor Ron Rordam declined to discuss either his or the council's reasoning for appealing the zoning board's decision. But he did say that while the council doesn't always agree with its boards and committees, their service is always appreciated.

Opponents of a big box retailer, who have organized themselves into an advocacy group called Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth, or BURG, however, are happy with the council. And they are ready to join the fight.

BURG chairman Daniel Breslau said the group has retained a land-use attorney and the group plans to file its own court appeal of the zoning board's decision.

BURG claims an e-mail mailing list of about 300 people, who have turned out en masse at public forums to demand regulation of big-box retail. Breslau said the group thinks the zoning board's decision is based on a misinterpretation of state law. The group has raised several thousand dollars for its appeal.

Fairmount lawyer Jim Cowan said Wednesday that his client is "disappointed that the town chose not to accept the well-reasoned decision of its own zoning board. ... We are still confident we are vested in our rights" to build.

Cowan said developers plan to break ground within 30 days on Phase I of the project.

The legal wrangling began in May when Fairmount and partners filed suit against the council over Ordinance 1450. Passed unanimously in April, that ordinance allows the council to put special conditions on retail buildings larger than 80,000 square feet or to disapprove them altogether.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk ruled then that Fairmount -- to which the council granted a rezoning for a 40-acre commercial hub in 2006 -- should press its case first with the town's zoning administrator, and if necessary, in front of the quasi-judicial zoning board to hear such appeals. The court appoints members of the zoning board based on the council's recommendations.

In June, the zoning administrator ruled that Fairmount had to abide by the new ordinance.

But last month the zoning board reversed the zoning administrator's decision when it ruled that state law forbids the council from applying Ordinance 1450 to Fairmount's project.

The board based its unanimous decision on the 2006 rezoning and an interpretation of state vesting rights statutes.

Rordam and Councilman Don Langrehr voted against the 2006 rezoning. At the time, Langrehr said he was concerned about what Fairmount might build on Country Club Drive and how it might affect surrounding neighborhoods.

Langrehr proposed Ordinance 1450 in April after seeing Fairmount's site plans for the property, which included a 186,000-square-foot retail store.

In 2006, Fairmount said it was interested in building apartments or condominiums on that site.