A lawsuit aimed at stopping construction of a Walmart-anchored retail center in the vicinity of the Wilderness battlefield can go to trial, a judge ruled today.

Daniel R. Bouton, presiding judge of Orange County’s Circuit Court, ruled that the plaintiffs fighting the proposed development—which has generated national controversy for more than a year—have legal standing to proceed with their challenge.

The court rejected the Orange Board of Supervisors’ request that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, a local preservation group, and six Orange County and Spotsylvania County residents who live within three miles or less of the site may proceed with suing the county over the project, it ruled.

But Judge Bouton ruled that another plaintiff, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, does not have legal standing.

In ruling for the local residents, he cited another national chain: Starbucks.

Residents would have a tough time proving one of the coffee chain’s stores several miles away would disrupt their lives, Bouton wrote. But the judge said the construction of a 138,000-square-foot Walmart was another matter. He said residents had legitimate fears about increased traffic and litter.

“Thus, the use of land by an establishment like Walmart could have an adverse and immediate impact on far more property owners than would a Starbucks,” Bouton wrote.

Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield maintains a historic property on the battlefield, Ellwood Manor, a former plantation house that headquartered Union generals and served as a hospital for Confederate troops. It is less than a mile from the Walmart site.

Bouton said the group would be “significantly affected” by the county’s approval of the retail center.

The lawsuit contests the Orange supervisors’ decision to allow a 240,000-square-foot retail development at State Routes 3 and 20, a cannon-shot from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

A 138,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter would anchor the retail center on 51.5 acres near the Wilderness Corner intersection, just north of a 7-Eleven and a small strip shopping center on the north side of Route 3.