New London - City residents were sharply divided on the question of whether the city should sell a portion of Riverside Park to the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday.

The vote was so close that the final answer to the question was unknown.

At the end of the evening, 2,104 voters had said no to the sale, and 2,117 had said yes, according to unofficial numbers from the registrar of voters, a difference of just 13 votes after the 344 absentee ballots were counted.

Registrar of voters Barbara Major said there will be a recount.

It was a year ago October that the City Council voted to sell 9.14 acres in the center of the park to the Coast Guard for $2.9 million. Two members of that council, Republican Rob Pero and Democrat Michael Buscetto III, subsequently ran for mayor, and their support of the sale may have cost them some votes.

Soon after the council's vote, residents opposed to the sale petitioned for a referendum on the matter, and over the past year have waged a voluble campaign against it.

The Coast Guard produced some 270 pages of drawings, environmental studies and responses to public comments and posted them on its website.

And while the Coast Guard's proposal was to build a shipboard simulator center and perhaps another building on the land, the academy's assessment of the environmental impact of the project on the surrounding neighborhood concluded that there would be none.

"This action has been thoroughly reviewed by the USCG and it has been determined ... that this project will have no significant effect on the human environment," wrote Mark E. Buck, chief of the Environmental and Safety Branch of the academy, and Capt. Mark S. Carmel, the commanding officer of the Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center.

The neighbors begged to differ.

Banding together with the New London Neighborhood Alliance and New London Landmarks, they argued that the proposed sale would in effect carve the heart out of the park and the neighborhood.

Rear Admiral Sandra L. Stosz, the academy superintendent, argued that the Coast Guard contributes approximately $160 million to New London's economy and that cadets contribute more than 18,000 hours of community service to the city each year.

But opponents to the sale, saying they meant no disrespect to the Coast Guard, said that open space is too scarce in the city, and they want to form a nonprofit organization to redesign the park.

"The park is very important to our neighborhood ... It is beautiful. There's nothing wrong with this park; it just needs some TLC," said Cathi Strother, whose house borders the park.

k.robinson@theday.com