BLACKSBURG -- Building a big-box store in Virginia's largest town just got a little harder.

On a 6-0 vote Tuesday night, the Blacksburg Town Council approved Ordinance 1509, which requires special approval for any new retail store larger than 50,000 square feet.

The new ordinance revises the controversial Ordinance 1450 passed in 2007, which reduced the by-right square footage of retail buildings to 80,000.

The new ordinance also establishes design guidelines that encourage developers to avoid the traditional big-box look of Wal-Marts and other large retail chain stores.

The idea was to encourage development that is more in keeping "with the size and scale of the community," Planning and Building Director Anne McClung said. The design guidelines are meant to help developers propose projects that will appeal to the council and to the community, McClung added.

The new ordinance could affect construction of a big-box store proposed by Fairmount Properties of Ohio for land along Country Club Drive. Fairmount and partners have fought regulation of their big-box -- widely thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter -- all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court. The court is expected to rule in that case in the next few weeks.

But overall, the new ordinance is unlikely to affect efforts to recruit new businesses to town, said Doug Juanarena of the Blacksburg Partnership. The partnership is the nonprofit economic development arm of the town funded in part by Blacksburg taxpayers. It's mission is to recruit retailers to the area.

About 95 percent of the businesses approached by the partnership are "much, much smaller than 50,000 square feet," Juanarena said.

"We're after smart growth and things that work with the demographics of the community," he added.

After the vote, Councilman Don Langrehr -- the author of Ordinance 1450 -- commended members of town staff and committees who had worked on the revisions.

Mayor Ron Rordam called Ordinance 1509 "a very good ordinance" and said he was happy to see the council "moving in the direction of defining what we want, not just what we don't want."