Elections in the affluent bedroom community of Piney Point Village are usually a sedate affair. But Saturday's city council race, where commercial real estate developer Bobby Orr Jr. is challenging the longtime incumbent councilman, attorney Henry Kollenberg, for the unpaid position has divided loyalties between some longtime residents and supporters of The Kinkaid School.

At issue is what will happen to a 24-acre heavily wooded property that the private school purchased in 2010 for about $20 million. The village, which Bloomberg Business Week named the 11th wealthiest town in America, has some of the most stringent zoning laws around, with a mandated minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet, or one "village acre" per home.

And, unlike Houston, where there is no zoning and little city planning, Piney Point residents do not take kindly to changes that may alter their neighborhoods. Five years ago, officials paid $1.5 million to purchase a five-bedroom home with a hot tub and rock waterfall in a residential neighborhood and announced plans to convert it to City Hall, with parking across the street in a church parking lot.

But after residents hooted and howled at the idea, the mayor nixed the plans. The house was sold the next year at a $60,000 loss.

On its website, Kinkaid shows a map of the purchased parcel, known as the "Milby property," with plans for practice fields, tennis courts, an outdoor learning center, and cross-country and nature trails through wooded areas. A small part of a proposed parking garage would encroach on the property. Funds from a nearly completed $25 million capital campaign cover the cost of the land, as well as proposed changes to widen the entrance to the school and a new parking lot.

There are no immediate plans to develop the property, said Gene Werlin, who has represented Kinkaid in presentations before the Piney Point city council for two decades, in part because it remains in a living trust where the owner, Marjorie Milby, will continue to live in a home on the front part of the property until her death.

"We bought this property with the future in mind. This is not a one-year plan or a three year plan. This is a 100-year plan," he told CultureMap.

The master plan, which is only preliminary, Werlin stressed, also includes a new upper school, fieldhouse and cafeteria on land located between the existing campus and the new property. Such plans are likely years into the future, Werlin said.

What concerns neighbors in the Stillforest subdivision, which adjoins the Milby property, is that the property is zoned for residential use only. Any non-residential changes have to be approved by the Piney Point city council and no one in the tiny community can recall that a plot of land has ever been rezoned for non-residential use.

Representatives from the neighborhood and the school have school been negotiating for nearly a year over the issue. Don Jones, one of the neighborhood representatives, says he thought both sides were close to an agreement that allowed for the playing fields with some restrictions (no lights, restricted use after 6 p.m.) and a buffer zone of trees. But he says the neighborhood balked at plans that the agreement expire in 20 years and talks came to a standstill in mid-April.

Werlin said the school is attuned to what's important to the neighborhood and will continue to try to come up with a reasonable solution. "I don't believe we've stopped negotiating. We're regrouping," he said.

Soon after talks stalled, Orr announced he would challenge Kollenberg for the council seat, with strong backing from the Kinkaid community. Kinkaid trustee Andrew Segal sent an email to Kinkaid parents and alumni living in Piney Point, urging them to vote for Orr because "he understands our issues and shares our values."

Orr and Segal did not respond to a phone call and email request for an interview.

A Kinkaid alum, who asked not to be identified, said those seeking a darker meaning in Segal's letter are misguided. "A telephone campaign to help get one of its alumni elected AND within the same neighborhood in which the school rests is what anyone would do," she said.

But Jones, who sent a detailed letter in support of Kollenberg to residents, is not so sure that the intent is so benign. With an Orr win and three of the five seats up for re-election next year, some Stillforest residents are worried that the school-backed candidates could win control "and do whatever they want to do," Jones said.

"The crazy thing is we're not anti-Kinkaid. But we're big boys," Jones said. "Don't try to pull the wool over our eyes."

Kollenberg, who has been on the council for 16 years in two separate stints, said the Kinkaid expansion has overshadowed more important issues like police, fire and medical services and drainage projects. "I'm not sure it's the principal issue in the election, but it's become the primary issue," he said.

The councilman said he has encouraged both sides "to work it out." "Frankly, it was my understanding they were talking. They seemed to be making progress. The next thing I know they're not getting along and Mr. Orr is running," he said.

Asked if he was being targeted by Kinkaid supporters, Kollenberg said, "I'm guessing there's some degree of that, but I don't really know. It is what it is. It's a free country. Anybody can run for office."

Kinkaid has not come to council with specific plans on how the school wants to use the property, so there's nothing to act on, Kollenberg said. He is hopeful that when plans are ultimately presented, they will have strong community-wide consensus.

"From time to time, schools and churches want to (make property changes). It makes it very tough on council to approve it when neighbors are in significant disagreement," he said.

Werlin emphatically says that the school is taking no position on the election and that officials look forward to working with whomever is elected.

"We are not trying to pull a fast one. We are trying to show the neighborhood everything we do and do what is best for the entire city," he said. "Other people might think that Kinkaid is the reason Bobby Orr is running for city council, but that's just not true."