CRANBERRY ISLES – In its simplest form, the debate over the future of the Cranberry Isles came down to who wears the pants: the wealthy summer Dockers crowd or the working year-round Dickies set.

On Wednesday, for the third time, the carpenters and fishermen won out over the lawyers and consultants, voting to spend what everyone agreed was a “tremendous amount of money” to buy waterfront property in Southwest Harbor.

The 3-acre parcel, prized by supporters and condemned by critics, will be used to create the town’s first-ever true foothold on Mount Desert Island – a large-scale parking and pier facility where access to the mainland is guaranteed and the price is fixed.

It will be a historic sea change for the five islands that lay in the shadow of MDI, just two miles from either Northeast Harbor or Southwest Harbor but a world away when the ferries aren’t running. Although it broke away from the town of Mount Desert 172 years ago, the Cranberry Isles has never been able to claim true independence because it was always beholden to someone else for basic parking and docking privileges.

Ironically, though, the $2.4 million project might remedy an old problem while creating a new one: a deep divide between year-round residents who work with their hands and get along without, and the wealthier summer residents who own some of the choicest Cranberry land and visit only while on vacation.

Frank Reece of Boston, who changed his residency to Maine last week so he could vote during Wednesday’s special town meeting, said after the vote that “it’s too early to know” whether the summer residents will mount a legal challenge to stop the project.

But some members of Reece’s new Cranberry Isles Taxpayers Association had hinted before the vote that they might see the town in court. The year-round residents, hoping it was just a bluff, voted again in strong numbers to proceed with the project.

A need for access

Residents and visitors of the Cranberry Isles fend for themselves for parking and docking rights in Northeast Harbor, where selectmen have reduced available spots for the islanders, taken away moorings and increased annual user fees.

Day-trippers, who clog the Cranberries during the warmest months, also fight for parking in Northeast Harbor and displace island dwellers who must go ashore for food, medicine, work and their children’s school events and games.

Feeling like a house guest who stayed a fourth day, Cranberry residents moved quickly this summer to find property on MDI for their own home port, after Mount Desert eliminated still more parking space near the marina. The process was well under way when the part-time residents – but full-time taxpayers – began streaming to their summer homes.

Some of them, once arrived, were surprised to learn they didn’t have voting rights anyway, so while they opposed the project, they would have to sway year-round voters to change their minds.

One year-round resident said during Wednesday’s meeting that she understood her summer neighbors’ concerns about the cost and scope of the project, and its impact on property taxes. But she worried that the Cranberry Isles eventually would wither away to strictly a summer place unless the town made provisions for growth and stability in the future.

“We want it all,” she said, after ticking off myriad reasons that people need a stable connection to the mainland. “And you know what? I’m willing to pay for it. This town is worth it.”

Only about 130 people live on Little and Big Cranberry islands year-round; the other three smaller islands are barren except during the summer. At the height of the vacation season, the Cranberry Isles’ population swells to about 550 – not including all of family, guests and friends.

“Anything we can do to keep these islands alive and functioning [year-round], with a foothold on [MDI], is very, very important,” said Chris White, a Bar Harbor native who has lived part-time on Great Cranberry for 40 years.

Added David Thomas, a year-round resident, “This is not about parking. This is about access. … I’m not doing this for today. I’m doing it for the future.”

Money matters

Selectmen half-expect the summer residents to file suit to stop the project, at least for now. Still, they met with the town attorney Thursday and hope to close on the deal in the next three weeks.

Property taxes, now apparently the lowest in Maine at $8 per $1,000 in value, will increase significantly, everyone agrees. For the average island home, taxes likely would increase by $200 to $300 a year.

But most residents think that’s affordable because they already pay nearly $200 a year to Mount Desert for parking rights. Docking fees cost hundreds of dollars a year more.

Other residents, who have been on a waiting list for a parking spot for years, can’t wait for a chance to pay for parking and docking space.

Dan Leif, a retired Goldman Sachs financial adviser who owns the only restaurant on Little Cranberry, braved the crowd Wednesday to oppose the deal. Leif, a full-time resident for six years, said he was amazed the town would approve such a major project without having firmer financial data.

“It’s very important that we know the truth,” Leif said, asserting again that town leaders have withheld information and ignored people’s concerns. “For a lot less than $2.4 million, we can find them a very, very good parking space.”

Leif offered an amendment Wednesday to delay the vote pending further study, but the year-round residents would hear nothing of it. The owner of the Southwest Harbor property, Pritam Singh, told the crowd he couldn’t hold the property any longer, having waited four months already to finish the deal.

In the end, the summer residents’ revolt didn’t sway enough voters. The final vote during last month’s town meeting was 57-26; Wednesday’s was 55-32.

The first vote on the proposal in July, to approve it in concept, passed on an 87-10 vote.

About 80 percent of year-round residents voted on the project this week.

First Selectman Richard Beal, who came under constant fire for pushing the project, said he hopes the dispute does not divide the island town.

“It doesn’t have to,” he said Wednesday after the five-hour meeting. “No one wants that.”

And despite the tension and bad feelings that might linger among the islanders, Beal said that until the majority no longer rules, the town will proceed to build its future, both on the Cranberries and in Southwest Harbor.