A view of the 55-acre Mulligan’s Island golf complex, on New London Avenue, where Providence developer Churchill & Banks proposes retail development.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers Kathy Borchers

CRANSTON — Neighbors of the Mulligan’s Island golf complex are vowing to fight a new, scaled-down retail project proposed for the property.

Providence developer Churchill & Banks faced stiff opposition in the spring when the firm filed plans for a major development on the New London Avenue site, which now includes a driving range, batting cages and a mini-golf course with a volcano that spews a 25-foot ball of fire.

The new plan, which would chop in half one of two proposed big box stores, cede land to abutting homeowners to create a buffer and deed more than one-third of the 55-acre property to the city for a park, is designed to allay neighborhood concerns about a loss of open space.

But Rachel McNally, an organizer with Save Cranston’s Open Space, said residents have hired a land-use lawyer and will continue to resist the project.

“The city is not for sale,” she said, standing in a neighbor’s back yard yesterday, just yards from the golf complex. “The residents cannot be bought off.”

Greg O’Brien, a spokesman for Churchill & Banks, said the developer has made major concessions and is hoping to open a dialogue with residents.

“We’ve listened to concerns about the need for open space and we’ve listened to concerns about scaling the project down and we’ve done both,” he said.

Churchill & Banks must win conceptual approval from the city’s Planning Commission and persuade the City Council to sign off on a zoning change and an alteration in Cranston’s Comprehensive Plan if the project is to move forward.

The developer might have a difficult time clearing those hurdles.

In recent weeks, in response to the controversy, council member Anthony J. Lupino introduced an ordinance that could make it more difficult for developers to erect big-box stores in Cranston.

And at least two council members — Vice President Paula B. McFarland and Jeffrey P. Barone, who represents the area — have come out in opposition to the latest plan.

“I would be very surprised if the council passes it,” Barone said yesterday, adding later, “I don’t think it’s any great deal for the city.”

The original plans called for two big-box stores in the development, known as The Centre at Garden Hills. Churchill & Banks never announced the tenants, but plans called for a garden center at one building and gas pumps at the other, leading to speculation that a Home Depot and a BJ’s Wholesale Club were slated for the site.

The possible Home Depot site, which was to be 118,000 square feet, is 60,000 square feet in the new plans. The BJ’s site remains at about 120,000 square feet. Three other commercial buildings, two of them labeled restaurants in the new plans, are smaller than they were in the first incarnation.

O’Brien said the developer would work with the city to determine the elements of the park, which forms a jagged j-shape on the eastern edge of the property in the plans.

Churchill & Banks, he added, is offering an average of 4,000 to 5,000 square feet of land to abutters on Hill Top Drive and Beeckman Avenue.

But Jeanne Silva, who lives on Beeckman and remembers when the Mulligan’s Island site was a vast cornfield, said she was not interested in the extra land.

“I’ve lived here for 32 years, raised my family here, and there’s always been open space there,” she said, remembering when she could see a silo from her kitchen window.

Churchill & Banks, which unveiled the new renderings in door-to-door visits with the neighbors over the weekend, must file detailed plans with the city by Friday to be heard at the next Planning Commission meeting, Aug. 7.

Peter Lapolla, the city’s director of planning, said late yesterday afternoon that the developer had not yet submitted the new proposal.

dscharfe@projo.com