ROCKY MOUNT -- Developer Trey Park received an early Christmas present Tuesday night.

After six months of revisions, discussions and continuances, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors took less than 10 minutes to approve Park's controversial LakeWatch Spa and Resort proposal by a 4-3 vote.

Supervisor Charles Wagner made the motion to approve the plan and Supervisor Hubert Quinn seconded it.

Supervisors Charles Poindexter, David Hurt and Russell Johnson voted against the plan. Supervisors Wagner, Quinn, Leland Mitchell and Wayne Angell voted for it.

After the vote was announced, the packed crowd in the meeting room quietly filed out.

Franklin County Planning Commission member Robert Camicia, who had been a staunch opponent of the plan, declined to comment on the decision.

Park also opted not to comment.

The decision ends six months of bitter debate that began when Park originally proposed the 605-acre project to accompany the already approved LakeWatch Plantation development.

The two LakeWatch projects are on opposite sides of Virginia 122, west of Hales Ford Bridge and east of the Westlake shopping area, and are estimated to cost more than $1 billion.

Under Park's original proposal, the development would have featured shopping centers and restaurants along Virginia 122, and a seven-story condominium rentals building, a conference center, a golf course and a wakeboard cable park within the property, as well as 190 motor coach lots and more than 1,300 single- and multifamily residential units. But public outcry against the project forced Park to revise his proposal three times.

Park's initial revision changed the project from a planned commercial development to mixed-use residential and commercial development, and reduced the size from 605 acres to 576 acres. The revision also eliminated commercial development along Virginia 122 and reduced the number of floors in the condo building from seven to five.

A second revision in September proposed adding a restaurant to the condo building, along with a 2,000-square-foot spa facility, a 24,000-square-foot for-profit community center and a 6,000-square-foot boat and golf storage building.

Yet a third revision, made during the October public hearing, dropped the motor coach lots from the project and changed the for-profit community center to a not-for-profit community center.

Johnson, who has been a staunch opponent of the plan, was able to delay voting on the project at the supervisors' November meeting after he found discrepancies in the project's plan and what was listed on architectural plans.

But he was silent after the vote was taken.

Opponents of the plan said the project did not fall within the county's newly adopted 2025 Comprehensive Plan.

Betty Creek residents were against the plan because of the impact it would have on their area of the lake. The civic organization People for Responsible Growth was formed to dissuade supervisors from approving the plan.

But supporters of the plan said the project was needed for the growth of the county and the development of Smith Mountain Lake.

In the end, the supervisors agreed with them.