Jim Smith hesitates only a second before conceding things would be different if he were thinking of developing Slate Hill today.

"If I had it to do over, I wouldn't do it. I would not."

Smith knows there are plenty of folks who undoubtedly wish that were possible. They have been outspoken in their displeasure in the two years since he began clearing the prominent hill at U.S. 220 and Virginia 419, the main entryway to the Roanoke Valley from the south.

Critics have complained that the project created a muddy eyesore where pristine woods once stood, and that the denuding of the hill has caused flooding and other problems for those who live and work downstream.

Smith doesn't share those qualms, however. He still strongly believes the property should be developed. For him, though, the project "has been a black eye, an irritant, an opportunity to be distracted."

Smith is chief operating officer of Smith/Packett, a Roanoke-based firm that calls itself "one of the largest senior housing and care development companies in the country." It manages 130 nursing homes and other housing for senior citizens in the Southeast.

"I have a successful, profitable business," Smith said this week.

"Communities all over the country want me to come there and develop retirement communities."

The controversial Slate Hill project "needed to be done," he insists, "and I had the wherewithal to do it. But looking back, I could have saved myself some heartache and grief by just passing on it."

Smith can watch the project's progress, slow though it has been, from his hilltop office across 220 from Slate Hill. His office occupies a third-floor corner of one building in a complex called Pheasant Ridge.

On that hilltop overlooking the busiest intersection in Roanoke County, Smith's companies operate a nursing home, assisted-living center, office complex and condominiums that cost about $150 million to create.

Although his nursing home projects have occasionally made the news, none of them -- in the Roanoke Valley, at least -- compares with the attention generated by Slate Hill.

Last week, Smith went before the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors to update them on the development. He said he's trying to find at least one large retailer that would help re-establish Roanoke as the regional retail center for Western Virginia, a position Smith believes it has forfeited in recent years.

"Roanoke hasn't kept pace," he said. "As the project has gotten bigger, there was the possibility to draw something larger. ... I felt like if we had an opportunity for a Bass Pro Shop or Cabela's or other large regional companies, that would be well worthwhile."

Smith said he hasn't had conversations with any such companies yet, but has been in contact with firms that develop those types of retailers. In any case, he said, "I won't delay long to explore that possibility." If nothing works out, "I'll develop it as we always intended."

That would include retail space, a hotel, offices and condos. About 15 of the site's 60 acres are zoned for high-density residential use.

Roanoke County director of community development Arnold Covey said Tuesday there probably would be little difference in impact on county infrastructure between Smith's two development alternatives.

The county is looking over the latest development plans now, Covey said. "That's the phase we're in, looking at ... storm water, water and sewer, road connections to the Lowe's site and intersection connections."

Among the items Smith and the county agreed to last week were proposals to channel storm water toward a large retention pond in front of the next-door Lowe's property, and a plan to move additional dirt to be graded from Slate Hill across 220 to a lot where a new Home Depot is being built.

Once the county approves Smith's development plans, the Virginia Department of Transportation is expected to issue entry permits, and building can proceed.

Despite the impression of some observers, Covey said the project's lack of specifics is not unusual.

"It's just like developing an industrial park, for example," Covey said, where a developer comes in with a set of drawings without knowing for sure who will occupy the site. Once specific occupants are found, individual site development plans are subject to additional review and approval.

And, he said, while "We all wish the project was further along than it is, we also have to remember this is a very complex project with a lot of variables."

From here, progress is "simply a matter of engineering," Smith said. After some back-and-forth with the county and VDOT, Smith said he expects to have the entry permits in 30 to 60 days. "Then we can build the entrances, and all that earthmoving gets to settle down. By then, we should ascertain whether we want to attract a large regional player or just develop the project" as originally envisioned.

"I understand people's impatience," Smith said. He notes that he's been acquiring property at the site for five years, joining together some 50 parcels for the project.

He said he agrees with those who say it is important to protect ridge tops from development.

"But you have to identify the ones you want to protect, and you can't zone them commercial in the busiest intersection in Southwest Virginia, then identify them as something to protect," he said.

Smith said he also is an advocate of infill development to combat urban sprawl, something he contends the Slate Hill project helps with.

But there's no mistake that Smith is a cheerleader for development and growth in the Roanoke Valley.

"On one side we have Smith Mountain Lake. On the other we have Virginia Tech. That [entire region] ought to be our town."

He described the geographic area as being similar to the Charlotte metropolitan area from one side to the other.

"My point is, if we envision this as one place, it will become one place," serving as an economic, retail, medical and transportation hub for the region.

"We can do some exciting things in Roanoke," Smith said. "But we have to be careful that the naysayers, people who, let's say, are not as optimistic as others, don't lead us.

"We have to have a vision of the future and work toward that."