PROVIDENCE � The City Plan Commission, on a pair of 2-to-2 votes Tuesday evening, appeared to reject a plan to carve 10 house lots out of the Brigham Estate at Rochambeau Avenue and Blackstone Boulevard.But...

PROVIDENCE � The City Plan Commission, on a pair of 2-to-2 votes Tuesday evening, appeared to reject a plan to carve 10 house lots out of the Brigham Estate at Rochambeau Avenue and Blackstone Boulevard.

But it wasn�t completely clear after the meeting if the tie votes, one on a motion to reject the application, the other on a motion to approve it, might still allow the plan to go through.

The city�s East Side was out in force, as more than 100 people watched and listened as speaker after speaker told the commission to reject the subdivision proposal by former American Tourister president Leonard Granoff and his wife, Paula Granoff. The Granoffs wanted to cut 10 residential lots of around 6,000 square feet each out of the 3.6-acre property.

The seven-member commission was working with a four-member quorum when Chairwoman Christine M. West called for a vote. Commission member Harrison Bilodeau moved to reject the request. He was joined by commission Vice Chairwoman JoAnn Ryan. West and commission member Luis Torrado voted against rejection.

Then Torrado moved to approve the application. The alliances held, as he and West voted yes on that motion, while Ryan and Bilodeau voted no.

Kelley Morris, legal counsel to the commission, said since the motion to approve failed, the Granoff request was to be considered denied.

Thomas Moses, lawyer for the Granoffs, argued that legally if the commission doesn�t decide on an application, it�s considered approved. Because the commission didn�t vote yes or no, he said, that was in effect a no decision and his clients� application should take effect.

Morris said she stood by her initial opinion, but added she wanted to do more research to see if she could find a precedent for two tie votes on motions that were diametrically opposed to each other on a question.

�This is not something I see every day,� she said.

The property, which includes a 9,100-square-foot Spanish revival villa, a statuary garden and grape arbor, is beloved in the neighborhood. Residents objected to the proposed lot sizes, the loss of a distinctive neighborhood landmark and the traffic that 10 new houses would bring.

Ryan and Bilodeau said they felt the Granoff plan, as presented, was too vague to know the effects the development would have on the neighborhood. They also said the lot sizes as proposed didn�t fit with the surrounding area of 7,800- to 12,000-square-foot lots or go along with the city�s land development comprehensive plan.

West urged a vote to approve because she said that way the commission could set conditions on how the site would be developed. Her motion included conditions to protect the property�s distinctive stone wall and trees and to study traffic and draining effects.

As unpleasant it might seem, she said the Granoffs had devised a plan that preserved the property�s distinctive villa and much of its surrounding grounds. She warned the Granoffs could legally level the building and replace it with a cul-de-sac development.

Moses was seething after the votes. He said the plan his clients submitted to the commission conformed to all the city�s current zoning rules and there was no legal justification for denying it.

�This is an example of an applicant meeting all the requirements of the law and because a crowd showed up some people didn�t have the intestinal fortitude� to do their jobs, he said.

He said he had no comment on what his clients might do next.