Michele Green rubs sunscreen onto her daughter Ryan’s face as they wait for the Block Island ferry. The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

Last Monday was overcast and quiet in Galilee, but everywhere in this Narragansett port village were signs of readiness for the crowds that will soon descend for the busy summer season.

Attendants were posted at the nearly empty parking lots for the Block Island Ferry and the Salty Brine and Roger Wheeler state beaches. There were small crowds at the beaches, and just a few customers were enjoying meals on the outdoor deck at the landmark George’s of Galilee restaurant.

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Even the state-owned Port of Galilee seemed deserted, although the parking lots for commercial fishermen were filled with vans and pickup trucks, some loaded with nets and sporting “RI DEM putting RI Fishermen out of Business” bumper stickers.

But local workers know that in just a few days, when the Fourth of July weekend arrives, the parking lots and ferry boats and restaurants will be overflowing with customers.

“It always gets crazy on the Fourth,” said Paula Geoghegan, who lives in Point Judith and works as an attendant at Rosie’s, a ferry parking lot.

Galilee is a center for fishing, beach tourism and transport to another state tourism center — Block Island.

Typically, Galilee has been a center for commerce rather than a residential neighborhood, apart from a few cottages with big yards used as parking lots during the summer. Sand Hill Cove and Point Judith are the nearest residential neighborhoods.

But the future will likely bring more mixed-use developments, including beachfront condos, to this port community. Of course, that future will have to wait until the realestate market turns around.

“People want to liven up Galilee,” said T. Brian Handrigan, president of the Narragansett Town Council. Handrigan said his plans to develop his own 1.4-acre parcel near the beach are on hold because of the market downturn.

“The only thing that’s stopping me is that housing market,” he said.

But Handrigan said the council doesn’t want any new development to interfere with Galilee’s fishing industry, which is already stressed by tight state regulation and depleted stocks.

Four new waterfront houses were recently built in Galilee, behind the small weathered cottages that house the Frills clothing store and Goodies Ice Cream shop. Ned Caswell, an agent with Remax Flagship, said the houses were built on land owned by Kevin Durfee, owner of the George’s of Galilee restaurant. Only one of the houses is still for sale, with an asking price of $1.9 million, Caswell said.

A nearby sign announces that these houses represent the first of a three-phase project that will include condominium townhouses and “mixed use” development. The cottages housing Frills and Goodies will be torn down when the second phase of the project is built on Durfee’s land, to make way for a building with eight residential condos and four commercial condos, Caswell said. Handrigan said that another building at this 240 Sand Hill Cove Rd. location, the historic fire house, will be moved, not demolished.

But this second phase is on hold until the real-estate market takes an “upturn,” Caswell said.

“The market has been better,” he added.

Last month, the Narragansett Town Council rejected a zoning amendment that would have allowed the George’s of Galilee restaurant to be replaced with a larger building that would include more condos, shops and an inn, in addition to the restaurant.

Durfee sought to expand the list of uses for mixed-use buildings in Galilee and allow a 50-foot height — up from the current limit of 35 feet — so the new building could have a fourth floor. Under current zoning, mixed-use buildings are limited to a condominium or apartment above with a shop below.

Durfee said his family, which bought George’s in the late 1940s, has had four different uses for years.

But council members said changing the zoning rules could change Galilee and eventually drive out the fishing industry.

Thirty-four houses in the Galilee-Sand Hill Cove-Point Judith area were listed for sale last week, at prices ranging from $294,900, for a 1958 ranch with 840 square feet of space at 84 Chestnut Ave., to $3.2 million for a contemporary built in 1950 at 174 Sand Hill Cove Rd., with 3,685 square feet of space.

But a small house does not a guarantee a small price tag for the many water-view and waterfront homes on Sand Hill Cove Road.

A house at 106 Sand Hill Cove was built in 1935 and has only 636 square feet of living space, but the asking price is $829,500, thanks to its location directly on the beach, according to the listing information, and its “tremendous views of the Harbour of Refuge and beyond to Block Island.”

POPULATION:

(Narragansett, 2000) 16,361

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(Narragansett, 2007) $395,000

INTERESTING FACT:

Local legend is that Galilee was named in 1902 by Thomas Mann,

a fisherman from Nova Scotia.

cdunn@projo.com