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Something is finally going to be built on a piece of property once occupied by radio station WINX near Lincoln Park.

But the site continues to spark controversy among neighbors, who are conflicted about whether the plan is good for the community.

A 23,000-square-foot office building will be built by the end of the year, property owner Perry Cho said, after what he called nine months of runaround from the City of Rockville.

"I wasted so much time on this, so I'm putting this on full gear right now and making this a fast-track project," Cho said.

Cho purchased the 10-acre lot, commonly called the WINX property, for $7.3 million in November with the intention of building a 30,000-square-foot building to create a buffer between residents along Ashley Avenue and the industrial uses on the other side. The lot is located adjacent to Ashley Avenue, at the end of North Stonestreet Avenue.

However, a building of that size would need an upgrade to the water and sewer system, which comes from the city, Cho said.

Because the property is located within county boundaries, the city cannot provide the upgrade, City Manager Scott Ullery said.

"They're not in the city and we don't provide utilities out of the city," Ullery said.

Cho was advised to file for annexation into the city, he said.

According to the City Code, the Rockville City Council has the power to extend water and sewer service beyond the city's boundaries.

The city provides water and sewer service to a small building on the site, Ullery said.

Ullery said city officials have not been able to figure out who made the decision to provide the service and when it was made.

"The best we can figure out is that it dates back to the 1960s, maybe 1950s," Ullery said. "It's my understanding that there was a lot of cooperation on a number of community matters with the radio station and somehow someone made the decision to provide water and that service has been there for a long time."

But the service would not have been enough to serve the 30,000-square-foot building Cho originally wanted.

The new building will house administrative offices for his expanding roofing business, Interstate Corporation, which is located on Southlawn Lane.

The property, which is nestled between Lincoln Park, the historic African-American community, and a light industrial area of automotive body shops and propane gas fields at the end of North Stonestreet Avenue, has been stuck in a game of tug-of-war between the two areas.

The property is zoned for industrial use. However, the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Plan recommends that if the property is ever annexed into the city, it should be zoned and developed for residential use.

Residents feel the industrial uses "smother" their neighborhood, said Wilma Bell, a Lincoln Park Civic Association member who helped draft the plans.

"It would be in our best interest to protect the residential nature," Bell said. "[The development on the site] would allow industrial uses to encroach further upon our neighborhood and we are very, very sensitive to that."

But not everyone in Lincoln Park agrees.

Residents along Ashley Avenue, which runs parallel to the lot in question, signed a petition Cho gathered in support of his plan that they said would give them a buffer from the noise that comes from the auto body and towing companies on the other side of the lot.

Gail Koenig, a 23-year Ashley Avenue resident, said she and her neighbors would have liked to see Cho build the larger office building that would have shielded their homes from the noise and dust coming from the industrial area. They were once shielded by large trees that filled the lot before the previous property owner cleared the area for development, she said.

"Now it's really noticeable when they're in full operation over there," Koenig said.

Koenig said large spotlights shine into her windows at night and she can hear people loading equipment late at night.

Koenig and Cho took their concerns to a council meeting last month, urging council members to allow Cho to upgrade the sewer and water system. But some council members responded that there is nothing they can do because the property is outside the city limits.

"When all is said and done, it is not a Rockville property, so until they request annexation and until it's annexed in, it's just a lot of talk," Mayor Susan R. Hoffmann said in an interview last week.

However, Councilman Piotr Gajewski requested that the issue be put on a future agenda for discussion.

"My colleagues have gone so far as to say they don't want a discussion on this, but the default solution will be a bunch of trucks and tow-away cars that will be an eyesore for residents of Ashley Avenue," Gajewski said.

Cho said that in addition to his 23,000-square-foot building and a storage building, he plans to lease the rest of the space to towing and construction companies for truck storage.