Residents should learn this summer what a Selma, N.C., developer has in mind for transforming the so-called gateway to McCandless into a 135-acre project comprising a town square, a big-box retailer and a string of townhomes.

McCandless council last week approved a pair of ordinances sought by AdVenture Development LLC, which owns the rights to land on both sides of McKnight Road between Cumberland Road and Babcock Boulevard.

Included is the largest undeveloped expanse in McCandless, plus the West Campus of LaRoche College, which will be sold to AdVenture. Campus officials want to relocate the existing facilities there to the main East Campus across Babcock Boulevard.

The new zoning paves the way for the company to assemble in a single package a master plan that could essentially include a bit of everything -- a megastore home improvement center, a cinema-based entertainment complex, sidewalk cafes, a hotel, a row of residences that will most likely be townhomes, and several parklets.

Another public hearing will be held once AdVenture submits a master plan.

The zoning decision followed several months of review, revision and public hearings when council fielded residents' concerns about traffic, noise, loss of green space and decline in property values.

There was also an underlying sense of inevitability, as skeptics sought to drum up community resistance even as they grumbled that council had already made up its mind.

In the end, council President Robert J. Powers said the new ordinances would allow town planners to have greater control over what gets built in the corridor, most of which had been zoned in the 1980s to encourage office park development that never materialized.

"This creates the groundwork for being able to develop a master unified plan for this acreage in this key corridor of McCandless," said town Manager Tobias Cordek.

"It's clear in our comprehensive plan that was adopted a couple years ago that council was seeking a cohesive plan of development for this part of the corridor," he said, a goal enhanced by dealing with a single company such as AdVenture.

About 80 acres affected by the new ordinances are on the west side of McKnight. The zoning there has been changed to allow up to a 150,000-square-foot home improvement or furniture store near the now-closed Fairfield Road.

The zoning code had previously not mentioned such a facility, although it did allow an office park of more than twice that size, provided that no more than 20 percent was for retail use.

The more dramatic and controversial update accommodates a town-center project on the eastern side of McKnight.

The new Traditional Neighborhood Development overlay allows myriad commercial uses, such as a cinema, multiuse retail, a specialty food store, a fitness center, a hotel and bistros that could utilize up to 30-foot-wide sidewalks.

Drive-up restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations are prohibited, while room for about 30 residential units are required for a stretch along Cumberland Road.

John Henchar, who lives off Cumberland Road, circulated a petition opposing the new zoning. He and others said the too-tall townhomes of up to 60 feet would crowd his neighborhood and eliminate prized green space.

"It's going to be like the Great Wall of China going down Cumberland Road," he said.

"I asked them if council had conducted any statistically reliable survey of the community to see if people wanted this," Mr. Henchar said. "I asked that the minutes reflect that there wasn't one."

The town-square project would be primarily accessible from Duncan Avenue, with secondary entries on Babcock Boulevard and Cumberland Road. There will be no curb cuts allowed on McKnight Road.

Resident Brian Moreth was mostly opposed to changes involving LaRoche, since those 27 campus acres had been zoned institutional and not commercial.

Still, he said Mr. Cordek and town planner Bruce Betty gained concessions from AdVenture that made the best of a bad situation.

The most important, he said, was to ensure that AdVenture or anybody else for that matter, would have to begin construction on the residential sites before the commercial ones.

"They received my concerns and tried to work those into the documents as best they could. They were willing to put in restrictions to make it more palatable," he said.

On the other hand, he said, "The other option was for the town to say no. The question then would be to go back to the developer and see if he could work it with 20 fewer acres."

AdVenture's local representatives, Kevin Dougherty and Kevin McKeegan, declined comment but have suggested that their plans rely on being able to develop all of the parcels, not some of them.