Botetourt County Supervisor Steve Clinton helped vote down a $4 million proposal to build a Walgreens drugstore last month.

But upon Clinton's request, the supervisors are scheduled to bring the issue back up for discussion at a 9 a.m. meeting today at the Greenfield Education and Training Center in Daleville.

Clinton would not go as far as to say he will change his vote, but he did say Monday that if there's a way the developer "can go back and significantly improve traffic and site safety, then I think they should be given that opportunity. I think it's worthwhile to let them look again at what they've offered and try to come up with something better."

The move is not unprecedented. Just last year, the supervisors approved a hotel off Interstate 81 after that proposal died initially on a 2-2 vote. And it was Clinton who remained as the lone dissenter to that project -- citing traffic concerns, the same issue that's become predominant in the Walgreens debate.

Clinton says that at the very least, there are issues that need more discussion.

He represents the Amsterdam District where the Walgreens would be located, at the busy corner of U.S. 220 and Catawba Road.

Clinton was part of the majority in a 3-2 vote to deny rezoning land at that corner at a meeting on June 24. As a member of the majority, he can request the issue be discussed again by the board.

Clinton's main options today: He could ask the board to rescind its June vote, which would likely allow developer Catawba Corner LLC to withdraw its standing proposal so it can submit a revised one. Or Clinton could push for another vote on the proposal filed last month.

Once a project is denied by the supervisors, the project developer must wait a year before submitting another proposal regarding the same project.

But if the supervisors were to reconsider a vote on the project, they could change their vote and approve the project.

"My train of thought, in the broad sense, is simply to use this as an opportunity to upgrade the approach that developers will use in the future for commercial projects in Botetourt County," Clinton said Monday. "And try to encourage more thoughtful and inspired approaches to the way we lay out buildings and handle traffic and so on."

The developer had pledged to improve road conditions along 220 and Catawba Road by upgrading turn lanes in the intersection and reducing entrances into the corner lot where the new drugstore would be located. 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 220.

Currently, the corner is home to an aging strip mall and other older buildings, some of which have been there since the 1940s.

Clinton said the board was right to deny the project as presented last month because it did not go far enough in addressing traffic congestion at the busy corner or properly ensuring the safety of children attending a day care center on a neighboring parcel of land.

Buchanan District Supervisor Terry Austin, who along with Fincastle Supervisor Don Meredith voted in favor of the project last month, said he still thinks the drugstore would do more to address traffic conditions than what currently exists at that corner.

"Basically my position with the project is the same as it was before. I think it's a worthy project," Austin said.

Mike Pace, a Roanoke lawyer who was hired recently to represent Catawba Corner LLC, said the developer wants to work with Botetourt supervisors to develop an acceptable plan.

"What we'd like to do is see if there's anything we can do to tweak it or change it to make it more accessible so a majority will approve it," he said.