BLACKSBURG -- Town officials and anti-Wal-Mart activists are still wrangling over the accuracy of a traffic study for the First & Main retail project slated for 40 acres along South Main Street, with the activists and one councilman calling for an independent study to resolve concerns. This week, town council created an ad hoc committee to review the study and its methodology.

According to the traffic study done by Blacksburg-based firm Anderson & Associates for First & Main developer Fairmount Properties, the development will add 20,000 car trips per day on some of the town's already busy south-end roads. The project may eventually include a 186,000-square-foot big-box store widely thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Members of the activist group Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth, or BURG, say they have reviewed the study and found that it underestimates the traffic generated by some of the projects' expected tenants. Critics also charge that the counts of existing traffic on which the study's predictions are based have been reduced without explanation in some versions of the document, casting doubt on its overall accuracy.

BURG formed last year in opposition to Fairmount's proposed big-box store. The group has hired a land-use lawyer from Richmond and some of its members have filed to join a town council suit related to the First & Main project.

Council wants Fairmount to apply for a special use permit before building a big-box store, but the town's board of zoning appeals blocked that action in August. Council then filed an appeal of the board's decision in Montgomery County Circuit Court, and BURG's attorney is representing residents who have petitioned to join the appeal. Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk is expected to rule on BURG's request this month.

Meanwhile, BURG and Councilman Don Langrehr have called for the town to commission an independent traffic study to resolve concerns over the projects' impacts. A new study is estimated to cost taxpayers between $30,000 and $40,000.

Town Manager Marc Verniel, responding to BURG's criticisms of the study, said town engineers reviewed BURG members' suggested changes and incorporated some of them into a critique of the study submitted to Anderson & Associates.

Traffic studies for any large development project change as the site plan changes, Verniel said. The changes may seem suspicious to residents unfamiliar with the town's normal site plan review process, but they are "very common," according to Verniel, who worked as a planner before becoming town manager.

While Verniel said it's up to council to determine whether a consultant-led study is needed, town engineers are the independent reviewers working on behalf of residents to ensure all state and local development rules are followed, he said.

Residents may also not understand that state law requires the developer to study traffic impacts only on streets that connect to the project, Verniel said. Developers are not required to do comprehensive studies of the effects on nearby streets, he said.

Many concerns expressed by residents during recent council meetings have focused on the already heavy traffic flow along Southgate Drive and Airport Road. Residents of neighborhoods along those streets say they worry that First & Main will exacerbate existing traffic problems.

On Tuesday, council appointed Langrehr and Councilman Tom Sherman to head an ad hoc committee composed of Anderson & Associates staff, town staff and BURG members to go over the existing traffic study together in hopes of coming to some consensus. The group is scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Blacksburg Police Department training room, and the public is welcome, Mayor Ron Rordam said.

For his part, Rordam said he wants council to take a comprehensive approach to traffic issues.

"What I've heard people talk about is the broader concern of how will new traffic affect the entire south end," Rordam said. Issues of congestion on Ramble Road, Southgate Drive and other areas are the responsibility of the town, not the First & Main developers, according to the mayor.

Rordam also suggested eventually creating a larger study group composed of town government and neighborhood representatives and officials from Virginia Tech and the Corporate Research Center to devise long-term plans for dealing with traffic as the campus, the center and the town grow.