What started out as a brewing fight to protect Sun Mountain, a Santa Fe icon, from development ended up as a love fest between the developer and the neighborhood at a planning commission meeting Thursday evening.

The Santa Fe Planning Commission approved a preliminary subdivision plat to put 13 homes on almost 23 acres of land on Sun Mountain's western shoulder even as some of the residents work with the Trust for Public Land to buy the property as open space.

Commissioners put several conditions on the plat for the Mirasol subdivision, proposed by Doug McDowell of McDowell Construction on the east side Old Santa Fe Trail and north of Zia Road. One condition is for the developer and neighborhood to work on creating a trailhead to access popular hiking trails on adjacent city property. Currently the plat calls for leaving open two public access points to trails that hikers have created across private land over the years to reach 235 acres of city-owned land on and around Sun Mountain.

McDowell has also offered to sell the property as open space to the Trust for Public Land and a group of residents known as Save Sun Mountain for $3.2 million. The group is $600,000 shy of the mark and has until Sept. 30 to raise the funds.

So far, the group has raised $2.6 million, said Jenny Parks, New Mexico director of the Trust for Public Lands. Of that, $1 million is from an anonymous donor and another $1.4 million is from a donor who would own one home site on the property. "It is not a perfect solution, but it is a pretty great alternative," Parks said of the deal.

The five people who testified at Thursday's commission hearing had nothing but praise for McDowell.

"Doug is a great person to work with," said Parks, who spoke in favor of the commission approving McDowell's subdivision. "He's worked with the community to try and find a solution."

Deborah Post, one of the Save Sun Mountain founders, thanked McDowell for being "so cooperative."

Post said she didn't think the neighborhood would object to a public trail head with limited parking at the Mirasol subdivision. "Some people park along the road already," she said.

The commission postponed a decision at the July 2 meeting in order to visit the subdivision site.

After residents raised concerns, McDowell reduced the number of lots and proposed setting aside more than 10 acres as open space, including a 10-foot-wide easement for a public trail connecting Old Santa Fe Trail to the existing city-owned parcel on Sun Mountain.

The city's land-use department received 26 e-mails and a petition with 1,214 signatures opposing the proposed subdivision because it would impact a popular viewshed and hiking area.

McDowell said Thursday night's decision shows what can happen when developers work in good faith with communities. "This is not about us and them. It's about us," he said. "I believe in honoring people's opinions and negotiating in good faith."

Contact Staci Matlock at smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.