It would be nice to think that T’Chookwap Park is about to settle into a future of quietude and repose – perhaps even public enjoyment.

The tiny Spargur Loop parcel overlooking Port Madison is one of the more serene plots of public ground on the island, high on a bluff on a country lane that could hardly accomodate two Volvos abreast. Serene, because its so out of the way that few folks outside the immediate neighborhood are ever likely to go there – and perhaps also because, lacking so much as a sign announcing it’s presence, others wouldn’t know it was a public park even if they chanced upon it.

As we said, nice – but unlikely. Despite its charm – or perhaps because of it – the park has been the subject of intense acrimony and debate since it was established by the city in 1993, rancor that’s not likely to end with its transfer to park district control. Five or six years ago, neighbors and public access advocates sparred over how much the property should be developed; attempts to put up small gazebo were beaten back by the locals, and officials even took down the park sign. Today, you can’t find so much as a picnic table there, a lone bench being the sole amenity.

At the urging of the Open Space Commission, city councilors recently have grappled with whether to just sell off the park and put the money toward land of better utility (and less controversy) elsewhere. Meanwhile, after years of squabbling among themselves over the park’s development, neighbors actually came together this week with a consensus vision for the parcel – a list of “conditions” that look tailored to dissuade use by anyone who doesn’t live on their street. A park without parking (one of the neighbors’ goals) isn’t going to welcome anybody else.

So T’Chookwap Park’s transfer to the park district fold doesn’t so much quell the dispute as shift its venue, as yet another stewardship plan is developed. But as park district officials mull the park’s use perhaps they will, finally, stand up for right of the greater public to get something out of their investment. A couple of parking spaces – including one for handicap access – would seem essential. A modest covered picnic area would promote year-round enjoyment. Stairs to a dock or overwater platform, while expensive and impractical today, might look pretty good a few years from now; the door should never be closed on public access to the shoreline.

There’s a tiresome predictability to these disputes that seems to flare up every time the city proposes improvements to a road end. But despite neighborhood fears of overuse and abuse by riff-raff from across the island, such waysides never attract more than a handful of users anyway; they’re too small to attract notice. But they’re public ground, and should be treated as such.

Five years ago in this space, we argued that T’Chookwap was a watershed issue for local officials, a chance to defend the public’s right of access to some parkland – small and humble, but parkland nonetheless – purchased with several hundred thousand dollars in public funds. That’s still true today, and we hope the park board will consider the public’s interest as well as the neighbors’.

Maybe even put the sign back up.