BLACKSBURG -- Residents who questioned the approval process for the first phase of the controversial First & Main retail center learned a difficult lesson in land-use law Wednesday night: Even when a developer puts a proposal in writing, it can't always be enforced.

After more than four hours of legal wrangling and passionate testimony, on a 4-0 vote the Blacksburg Board of Zoning Appeals upheld the town's approval of site plans for a large chunk of the 40-acre First & Main retail project. Building permits for parts of the project have also been approved, and construction has begun on the site. Some stores could open by the fall, Fairmount Properties attorney Jim Cowan has said.

Wednesday's decision was a disappointment to neighborhood advocates Chuck Rogol, Jane Sprague and Carol Guest, who had argued that officials should have rejected the site plans because they did not show residential units Fairmount included in its 2006 rezoning application. The residents asked the zoning board to overturn the town's approval of that part of the project.

To the frustration of Rogol, Sprague and Guest, much of Wednesday's meeting focused on whether they had legal standing to even file their appeal. Eventually, the zoning board set aside that question to hear the residents' arguments. After denying the appeal, the board declared the question of standing moot.

Rogol said later that he was glad residents' questions about the approval process were finally raised in a public forum. But he went on to say that what the public really saw Wednesday was "a process where the residents were hardly considered."

Guest said Wednesday's decision was a "hard lesson I wish I didn't have to learn."

That lesson: Under state law, developers are bound only by zoning ordinances and proffers -- voluntary restrictions builders offer to make the project more attractive to elected officials. Legally, the project descriptions outlined in most rezoning applications are little more than vision statements.

Guest was particularly taken aback when Town Attorney Larry Spencer told the zoning board that officials considered the application to be "a sales pitch," not a legally enforceable development plan. On behalf of the town council and staff, Spencer asked the zoning board to allow phase one of the project to go forward.

"The residents didn't know" it was a sales pitch, Guest told the zoning board. Two years ago, they studied and spent hours commenting on the proposal believing they were helping shape a real development plan, she said.

On Thursday she questioned the town's review process for development projects. "If what it is is a sales pitch to town council, just keep it at town council. Why involve the citizens in the sales pitch?" Guest said.

Guest also said she would think carefully about whom she will vote for in May when three council seats come up for election. Those seats are now held by Tom Sherman, Al Leighton and Paul Lancaster, all three of whom voted to approve the 2006 rezoning.

"That's going to be a charge of mine," Guest said. "To make sure we at least ask questions when these candidates come up for re-election -- why did they let this happen?"

Approval of phase two of the First & Main project -- a 4-acre big-box store widely thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter -- is hung up in court as the council fights an earlier ruling of the zoning board that would allow Fairmount to build the big-box without further governmental regulation. That decision was upheld in January by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk. The council has signaled it will file an appeal with the Virginia Supreme Court.

Criticism of the zoning board's earlier ruling and tensions at Wednesday's meeting prompted board Chairman Wayne Hensley to comment: "If you want a truly thankless job, volunteer to serve on the board of zoning appeals. No matter what you do, half the town is furious," he said. He later apologized for what he called "editorializing."