ROCKLAND – After more than three months of negotiation, a split City Council threw in the towel Monday night on reaching a deal with the Samoset Resort to allow the business to build a marina.

A contract that would have set the terms by which the resort could have built the marina was defeated, 2-3. Councilors Jim Raye and Becky Gamage voted in favor of the contract; Councilors Joe Steinberger and Brian Harden, and Mayor Carol Maines voted against it.

The Samoset pursued a contract zoning arrangement with the city because the property it wanted to build the marina from is zoned residential. A contract zoning agreement would let the city dictate conditions for the development that would remain in effect in perpetuity and have the force of law.

The city and the resort had been inching toward an agreement, and a vote on the contract seemed imminent earlier this month. But the matter was tabled at the request of the Samoset on March 12 to give attorneys for Ocean Properties, the company that owns the Samoset, time to review the document.

Late last week, Ocean Properties apparently nixed a key provision of the contract, which granted a public easement to a beach the Samoset owns near the Rockland breakwater.

At Monday night’s meeting, Samoset attorney Steve Hanscom told councilors the restrictions the city has placed on the project have doubled over the last three months.

Despite the growing list, the Samoset agreed to almost all the conditions, he said. But granting a public easement to the beach would reduce the value of the resort and affect the mortgage, the attorney said.

“That’s grounds for foreclosure,” Hanscom said.

The Samoset provided councilors with a counterproposal apparently drafted by attorneys from Ocean Properties.

Steinberger said the counterproposal came from Ocean Properties owner Tom Walsh and corporate attorneys.

“We’re used to dealing with people we know,” he said, referring to Hanscom, a local attorney, and Jim Ash, a longtime manager and former part owner of the Samoset.

“We’re dealing with each other in this old-fashioned way, as friends and neighbors,” Steinberger said, “but the reality is that the power has shifted away to someplace else,” referring to Walsh and the corporate attorneys.

The easement to the beach was “essential,” he said. Just a half-acre of the 3-acre parcel to be rezoned would be open to the public under the contract, Steinberger said, which he believes is a reasonable concession.”I’m not prepared to support the changes they’re proposing,” he said.

Harden agreed, basing his opposition on the strong public reaction against the marina. He held up a notebook in which he had compiled comments from those supporting the project. Then he held up a notebook of comments from opponents, which was about four times as thick as the first.

The marina would adversely affect tourism, lobstering, the schooners operating in the area and the peaceful enjoyment of the breakwater, he said. “I don’t feel we should sacrifice what has made that resort unique,” he said, referring to the nearby breakwater.

Gamage said the marina would not take away her enjoyment of the breakwater. And for the Samoset to give away its beach would be “a stupid business move,” she said, and indicated her support of the zone change.

Raye, a staunch supporter of the project from the beginning, said he called some opponents and discovered they believed the project would end access to the breakwater. At no point did the Samoset suggest blocking access to the breakwater.

Raye said a vote should have come earlier on the project.

“We didn’t need to divide the city,” he said.

In a sarcastic tone, he told the opponents, “You people win,” then listed the public amenities that would be lost by defeating the project: a water taxi service, a public dinghy tie-up, and public bathrooms.

Raye proposed passing the contract with the Samoset’s counter-proposal, which was defeated, 2-3.

After the vote, the Samoset’s Ash said he would meet with Walsh to see what the next move is. He did not rule out building cluster housing on the property, which is allowed under the current zoning. A pier could be built to go with the houses.