Call it the Wal-Mart that won't die.

A proposed supercenter for South Roanoke County that had been declared economically unfeasible by the retail giant in May now appears to be back on the drawing board.

But the company apparently is facing a short deadline -- just under seven weeks -- to reacquire contracts or options on the dozen parcels it needs for the new store.

Oct. 24 will be the county's deadline for demonstrating that the company intends to "utilize the granted special-use permit in a period of time deemed reasonable" for the development.

Kelly Hobbs, Wal-Mart's senior manager for public affairs, said Monday she couldn't provide more details but that "we are pleased that the developer is working toward an agreement with the landowners and we look forward to being able to better serve our Roanoke customers with a new store."

Hobbs, who responded in a voice mail, didn't say who the developer is, and Roanoke County officials contacted Monday said they don't know either.

Cave Spring Supervisor Charlotte Moore, who represents the Clearbrook community where the store is planned, said she was told that it is not Tennessee-based Holrob Investments, which had been the original developer for the project.

A call to Holrob was not returned late Monday afternoon.

The planned 203,000-square-foot store on U.S. 220 would lie within sight of the Blue Ridge Parkway and square in the middle of the Clearbrook Village Overlay District.

That special zoning designation was approved by the county in 2001 "to promote future development that is consistent with the current character of Clearbrook," its introduction says.

The zoning explicitly discouraged strip commercial development, but allowed that, "A special use permit shall be required for any retail use or development that exceeds fifty thousand (50,000) square feet of gross floor area."

Nearby residents who opposed the development contended that a store four times that size violated the spirit of the overlay and they helped pack a marathon session of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors that ran past midnight on Oct. 24, 2006.

The board disagreed with the critics and approved a special-use permit for the supercenter. After an unsuccessful court challenge of that action by a group of residents in 2007, it appeared that construction would proceed as planned.

However, Holrob apparently never resolved county concerns about the traffic entrances and exits to the site, and in May this year Wal-Mart conceded that the developer also had been unable to negotiate what it considered acceptable prices with some of the landowners.

A series of options with property owners that had been negotiated earlier were then allowed to expire.

At that time, Hobbs said Wal-Mart was still excited about the site, but, "when the cost of the project is too high, it becomes unfeasible to move forward."

Members of the group that filed the lawsuit declared some vindication, and most residents and county officials assumed the plan was dead.

Rumors sprang up in July that Wal-Mart might be trying to resurrect the project, but it wasn't until this week that new rumors gained traction and the company acknowledged that negotiations are ongoing with landowners.

Roanoke County Zoning Administrator John Murphy said Monday that he cannot comment on whether or not this specific project would qualify as having met the requirements of the special-use permit.

If the question comes up, he would make that administrative decision and said it would be treated like any other project.

"We have to look to see what steps they've taken since the approval. ... Speaking in generalities about any project, anything to get them to their goal -- engineering work, acquiring property, arranging financing," can be evidence of the intention to proceed and permits can be issued.

County Attorney Paul Mahoney agreed, saying the company "could make a very strong argument that it exhibited its intent to go forward" if it has submitted plans that are waiting for Virginia Department of Transportation approval or site development plans. That case might be particularly strong, he said, "if you look at some portion of your [development] time being taken up through the delays inherent in litigation."

But he said he believes the company must have options or contracts from the current property owners in hand by the time of the special-use permit deadline at a minimum.

"As a real-world legal matter, they would have difficulty making an application for a building permit, or a grading permit, or an erosion and sediment control permit if they did not have control of the land," he said.

Mahoney seemed less sure than some observers that construction is likely.

"I don't want to minimize" information that is stronger than a rumor, he said, "but actions speak louder than words."

"I feel sorry for a lot of the citizens of Clearbrook. This obviously is very stressful for them, keeping them all churned up. ... But unless and until all the real estate is tied up," Mahoney said he doesn't expect the project to advance.

One of the project's neighbors who is discouraged by the latest news is Judy Hawks, one of the parties to the unsuccessful lawsuit.

"It's a big disappointment to me that this has been so secretive," Hawks said.

Her community now has a supervisor "who said she would support the overlay and I would hope that this would have to go back through the board again" to be reapproved.

"It seems like the community should get to discuss this."