A large portion of a village-owned property in Northport will now be a park, while a smaller chunk could end up as much-needed attainable housing.

A roughly six-acre parcel at the corner of 7th Street and N. Shore drive has been the subject of community debate in recent months, with “Save 7th Street” lawn signs popping up near the property and other locations throughout the village.

This is reminiscent of the “Save Buster Dame” signs that popped up during similar attainable housing discussions about that property, which sits less than a half mile away from the 7th Street parcel.

The village council on Oct. 16 decided to split the 7th Street property and dedicate the roughly 4.7-acre north end of the parcel as a park (it has been informally used this way for decades), while leaving the south end along 7th available for attainable housing (or some other use).

While some community members have been extremely vocal about the need for attainable housing on the property and in the area in general, others (presumably most with the lawn signs) want the entire property preserved in a natural state. Village Manager Jered Ottenwess believes the council’s move to split the property into different uses is a win-win.

“I think the majority of people in town in general, and including in that area, support the council's action,” he tells The Ticker. “And they see it as a compromise, where the council has made a priority to preserve most of it as open space, preserve the wooded area, and yet also leave the possibility open in the future for development of the front portion of the site.”

The front/south part of the parcel until recently housed a department of public works garage and makes sense as a location for some sort of development, Ottenwess says.

Village President Chris McCann hopes the parcel split sits well with most of the “Save 7th” crowd.

“Has this appeased all the members down in that area? Probably not all of them,” he tells The Ticker. “But what I hope it has done is let them know that the majority of that property is going to be now preserved as parkland and will be protected for future generations.”

McCann says the conversation can now move from what to do with the entire property to what can and should be done with the smaller portion. That location has been repeatedly identified as a spot for attainable housing, McCann says, though nothing is set in stone.

“What this does is sort of separate the conversation from how much of that property is going to be developed to now focusing on that 1.2 acres and look at the potential for something there,” McCann says.

If the property is used for housing, the question now becomes how much housing and what form it takes – apartments, condos, detached homes, etc.

“I'm just asking for some patience from the community (as we) move the conversation from should we use it for housing to how can we do it the right way here in this neighborhood that fits the dynamic of what's going on there,” McCann says.

If it’s determined that attainable housing will indeed be built on the site, what will likely come next is a conceptual plan for the community to review. Ottenwess says he’s proposed up to six smaller, detached units of perhaps 800-1,100 square feet that would be built in partnership with various entities.

“The mechanics of exactly how that would work are yet to be determined,” Ottenwess says. “But we'd have a developer partner. We'd partner most likely with the county. It’s a long process, but I think it needs to start with visualizing what's going to go there and building some consensus about it first.”

Meanwhile, it appears that Buster Dame (which sits just outside the village in Leelanau Township) is “saved” for now. Township Supervisor Barb Conley tells The Ticker that based on community reaction, the property will not only not be used for affordable housing anytime soon, but instead get some more care as a park.

“It’s fairly beloved by people who live around there, and so parks and rec has taken that under their wing to sort of see what should be done with it to make it more of a park at the moment,” she says. “(Affordable housing there) may in the future be a possibility, but as of now we don’t envision that.”

Conley says the board has instead turned its attention to a roughly 5-acre parcel that sits just north of the fire hall a stones throw from Buster Dame. The board is having some “fairly serious conversations” about that property, she says, and like the village will look to partner with various entities to make housing happen there.

“The township is not interested in being a landlord or developer itself,” she says.