Plans for a controversial townhouse project in Silver Spring will not be as dense as developers originally hoped.

The Montgomery County Council voted 5-4 on Tuesday to recommend developer EYA downsize its plans to build 76 townhouses on the Chelsea School site near downtown.

The Bethesda-based development company filed an application last year to rezone the site for townhouses. The County Council recommended developers redesign their plan for the 5.45-acre site, 711 Pershing Drive, to better fit the neighborhood of mostly single family homes.

The future of the Chelsea School site has been under debate for the past year. The measure faced staunch opposition from the Seven Oaks/ Evanswood Citizens’ Association, which represents a neighborhood northeast of downtown near the Chelsea School.

“We spent a huge amount of time listening to [EYA] and investigating, and we expressed our opposition to this huge upzoning,” said Anne Spielberg, chair of the Chelsea School task force for the citizens’ association.

Plans for the site were first presented to the community in April 2010.

“We always felt from the beginning it was too many townhouses,” said Kathleen Samiy, president of the citizens’ association. “It was too tight and it didn’t fit.”

EYA did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

An application for a zoning amendment goes through the Montgomery County Planning Board and then the county hearing examiner. The hearing examiner recommended amending the zoning, but it also recommended decreasing the high-density level of development proposed by EYA.

The hearing examiner also asked for more specifics on plans to maintain the historic Riggs-Thompson House on the site and for details on road configuration through the townhouse complex, said Jeff Zyontz, a legislative attorney for Montgomery County.

The County Council voted in favor of the examiner’s recommendation. The citizens’ association also supported the hearing examiner’s opinion.

“It was very important to us to work as hard as we could to get a development that was more compatible with our neighborhood,” Spielberg said. “You can’t accept just what the developer comes in with. The community has to protect its interests.”

Chelsea School officials plan to move the campus to Prince George’s County in summer 2012. The school teaches around 80 students in grades five through 12.

EYA can either choose to do nothing and not proceed with its plans to build or it can submit a revised plan to the hearing examiner. The hearing examiner will then make another recommendation, which will go before the county council for consideration, Zyontz said.

ktousignant@gazette.net