A new Wal-Mart Supercenter got the go-ahead from the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors in a marathon session that lasted until nearly 12:30 this morning.

In a 4-1 vote with Supervisor Butch Church dissenting, the board approved a rezoning and special-use permit that will allow construction of a 203,000-square-foot store in the Clearbrook section, just off U.S. 220 south of the Roanoke city line.

The board heard a stream of concerned residents who were arguing, some passionately, both for and against a developer's request for a special-use permit and rezoning that would allow the construction.

"I've lived in Clearbrook for 28 years," said Harry Norris. When he and his neighbors give directions to friends on how to visit their homes, "do I want to say, 'go to Wal-Mart and turn left' and there's your house? We don't want that, but I have a sense of reason."

Norris then said "development is going to come," and praised Tennessee-based Holrob Investments for doing a "tremendous" job in working with neighbors as it prepared to market the 42-acre site for development of a Wal-Mart.

Some 150 turned out for the public hearing on the development.

Concerns about safety, traffic and the preservation of the rural character of the Clearbrook community dominated the concerns raised by opponents.

The super center represents "a gross monstrosity," said Angela Nordberg. Describing herself as a longtime former employee of the existing Wal-Mart store a mile north on U.S. 220, Nordberg insisted that the new store will bring "an increased risk of violence" to Clearbrook Elementary School.

She said the store's inventory of hunting knives, guns, ammunition, pharmaceuticals and alcohol would pose a threat to the school's students.

"Wal-Mart is not accountable for its patrons," she said, but it is "in fact, a venue for them."

Pam Berberich read extensively from the county's zoning code and insisted the board should "vote to postpone in hopes of getting more information."

She threatened to bring a lawsuit against the county should the special-use permit and rezoning be approved Tuesday night.

All those who spoke in favor of the development were property owners who have been offered "four to six times the appraised value of their property."

The supervisors' are "challenged with deciding not what is best for those 13 families, but what is best for the 80,000 residents of Roanoke County," Berberich said.

She argued that the plan has been changed so much since it was endorsed by the planning commission earlier this month that it must go back to that body for a reappraisal before the supervisors vote on it.

News of the proposed development began circulating more than a month ago when the developers, along with county planning staff, held an informal meeting with Clearbrook residents to discuss the plan.

It was formally presented to the county planning commission on Oct. 3. After more than two hours of presentations, the board voted 4-1 in favor of the special-use permit. Commissioner Gary Jarrell dissented, saying, "I feel that we need more answers here."

Much of the evening's discussions centered on what was the key issue at a community meeting on the proposal three weeks ago: traffic. Specifically, residents along Stable Road, which borders the property, want to keep cars coming out of the proposed parking lot for the retailer from using their road as a shortcut to U.S. 220 North.

Developer Bud Collum assured the commissioners that his firm would continue to work with residents on a solution that is satisfactory to them and still acceptable to Wal-Mart.

Joe Wallace, a traffic consultant with Dominion Development Services in Richmond, told the supervisors Tuesday that Holrob Investments "has been receptive and accommodating" to the nearby residents' concerns in negotiations over the past month. Wallace was hired by a group of those residents earlier this month.

"We have yet to finalize a plan," Wallace said, but that he and the residents "will continue to work with them until a plan is accepted."

Alice Ann Davis Foutz may have spoken for other supporters when she said, "I live right in front of Clearbrook school. I love to shop, and I'd like to tell you we are all for a super Wal-Mart coming to this side of county. ... It will attract mom and pop stores" to the area and "add tax dollars to the Roanoke County budget. So, I'm saying yes to Wal-Mart and no to delays."