DALEVILLE -- A Walgreens drugstore won't be built at the corner of U.S. 220 and Catawba Road in Botetourt County, the board of supervisors decided Tuesday.

Despite a developer's pledge to improve road conditions in that area, the board, on a 3-2 vote, denied a request by Catawba Corner LLC to rezone a portion of land at the corner to build the store.

The combination of heavy traffic conditions, the lack of state road funding and the feeling of government officials that too many drugstores are coming to the area drove the vote.

As part of a $4 million project, Walgreens had proffered to extend the length of the left-turn lane on U.S. 220 north for vehicles turning onto Catawba Road. That road would be widened, and a left-turn lane would be added for vehicles turning into the proposed Walgreens parking lot. Three other entrances that access the corner lot would be eliminated, curtailing entry to the property to one entrance on Catawba Road and one on U.S. 220.

The Walgreens store would have replaced an aging strip mall and other older buildings at the corner, some that have been there since the 1940s.

While supervisors agreed the improvements would make the intersection more attractive, they wondered about its long-term traffic benefits as Daleville continues to grow.

Ray Sprinkle, a Daleville real estate agent representing one of the property owners at the corner, said previous projects approved by the supervisors have created the current traffic congestion and will add to it in the future.

The stretch of U.S. 220 where it intersects Catawba Road attracts about 24,000 vehicles per day, according to a Virginia Department of Transportation study. Most are commuters heading south toward Interstate 81 at Exit 150, which itself is notorious for traffic congestion.

Catawba Road also generates a large amount of traffic from residents, Greenfield Elementary School, the Botetourt Sports Complex and the Roanoke Cement Co.

Both roads will draw even more traffic in the future with the build-out of the Daleville Town Center. The development, approved in 2005, will include 300 residential units and 400,000 square feet of commercial space, including a proposed pharmacy, with entrances and exits on U.S. 220 and Catawba Road.

A Food Lion grocery store, Carilion facility and pharmacy will also come to the area in the new Orchard Marketplace, being developed across U.S. 220 from the town center.

"All of these things have been done, and really nothing has addressed traffic on that corner until now," Sprinkle told supervisors, referring to the proposed turn-lane upgrades.

Although a traffic study done by the developer indicates Walgreens wouldn't substantially make future traffic conditions worse than they already are going to be, Supervisors Steve Clinton, Don Assaid and Billy Martin voted against the project because of traffic concerns and the presence of other drugstores within a mile of the area in the near future.

"I applaud the project. I just think it's in the wrong place," said Assaid, the board's chairman.

"Why do we need four drugstores in the Daleville area?" Martin asked Sprinkle.

Supervisors Terry Austin and Don Meredith supported the project, however, saying developers shouldn't be responsible for traffic conditions that the state highway department has no funds to address.

They also said it's not the board's job to decide how many drugstores are needed in the community.

"Isn't competition in the marketplace a good thing?" Austin asked. "That's not our determination."

Austin noted that the corner is already zoned for certain types of businesses, and that something will go there eventually, without making any upgrades to the intersection.

"I just see a lot of improvements there," he said by allowing Walgreens' project to proceed.

"I see this as an opportunity to better our intersection," Meredith said.

Sprinkle said Walgreens has looked at the Town Center and Orchard Marketplace locations, but liked the U.S. 220/Catawba Road site because of its corner spot. It's unclear if the national chain will reconsider another location in the county.

"We think we're cleaning up that corner and putting a much better gateway into the Catawba Valley," Sprinkle said.

In other business, the supervisors:

n Agreed to advertise for bids to construct a convenience center for residents to dispose of trash and recyclables. The center would be located at the site of the county's existing landfill off Catawba Road. By the end of the year, the landfill will close. The county began sending its trash to Salem earlier this year.

n Authorized the county administration to proceed with a final architectural design for the planned Eagle Rock library. The 9,500-square-foot project will feature wireless Internet, a computer room and a community meeting room at a projected cost of $1.6 million. The facility will be located off U.S. 220 near Eagle Rock Elementary School.