Area residents and the Town of Blacksburg have been fighting for two years to keep a big-box store out. It looks like that wish has finally been granted by the Virginia Supreme Court.

The big-box store, thought to be a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, was being proposed by Fairmount Properties of Ohio and its partners. Fairmount is the same company that has developed the First & Main retail center in Blacksburg.

Friday’s ruling by the court, however, affirms the Blacksburg Town Council’s right to require that the developer apply for and acquire a special use permit to build a 186,000-square-foot store off South Main Street as part of the First & Main retail project.

Justice Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr., gave the opinion of the state Supreme Court and said the principal issue was whether the circuit court correctly applied a legal code in finding that the owner/developers of a parcel of real property obtained a vested right to a particular use of the property under a rezoning ordinance and whether that code would bar the locality from enforcing the amendment of the zoning ordinance against the property.

Blacksburg residents are expressing relief at the end of the long legal battle. “As a small business owner in the traditional downtown, a social justice activist, and a founding member of BURG, I am thrilled with the ruling of the Virginia Supreme Court in favor of the town and its residents, said Margaret Breslau, owner of Homebody, a Main Street store self-described as retail as activism. “There is no place for bait-and-switch tactics, big-box development in proximity to schools and residential neighborhoods, and development that is not consistent with the interests of the town and our community. We want smart growth, planned development, and green space. This is not just a victory for our town but for the state and I couldn’t be happier.”

Many local residents were opposed to the big-box idea and to Wal-Mart in particular. Blacksburg resident Kathryn Welch said she did not oppose Wal-Mart, per se. “But I believe Blacksburg residents were baited and switched,” Welch said. Worse, the superstore site, right next to an elementary school, was totally inappropriate and unsafe for young school children. So I am happy about the ruling.”

The court concluded in its opinion of more than 40 pages that the circuit court erred in ruling that the developers had a vested right to develop on the property structures for retail sales in excess of 80,000 square feet of gross floor space without the necessity of first obtaining a special use permit.

Blacksburg residents had been anxious to hear the court’s ruling, and at least one resident said he was surprised at the result. “I’m pleased and pleasantly surprised by the ruling,” said Tim Colley. “I think it gives Blacksburg a chance to re-look at what kind of a community it wants to be and to put in place those measures to implement that vision. This is a significant step in planning for a truly sustainable community and not one following the status-quo of other towns hungry for the tax base that big-box retailers promise.”

In a unanimous decision on Friday, the court reversed previous rulings.

“I’m speechless,” Town Attorney Larry Spencer told The Roanoke Times. “I did not expect such a decisive victory.”

The court said that it entered a “final judgment here for the Town and the residents.”

Tim W. Jackson is Editor of the New River Voice.