The heirs to a former western Cary farm have reached peace with the suburban neighborhood next door. After years of across-the-fence arguments about how the 21-acre Carpenter property should develop, the Weycroft subdivision and the Cary Town Council on Thursday gave their stamps of approval on plans for a 60-home subdivision on the undeveloped lot.

It took three project proposals by two different developers to find a plan acceptable to Weycroft, which ensconces the proposed subdivision just north of Green Level Church Road’s intersection with McCrimmon Parkway.

The two-year process grew heated at times: The Carpenter heirs argued that their neighbors’ demands threatened their right to profit from the long-held family property, while Weycroft residents worried their new neighbors wouldn’t match the style and quality of their own homes, which have been built in the last five years.

State law makes it likely that the project would have died in the Cary Town Council chambers unless Weycroft granted its approval. Twenty-six Weycroft neighbors filed another protest petition against the project this summer – the technique, written into state law, allows residents to essentially “raise the bar” on the development of nearby land.

With the protest petition in effect, the project would have required six of the seven votes of the council, no small task with a group that holds current residents’ concerns highly.

The trials of the development process drove at least one potential developer away from the project last year. PulteGroup in 2011 proposed to build 75 homes on the land but eventually withdrew from negotiations, according to Weycroft residents.

The next suitor, LStar Management, was apparently more pliant to neighbors’ demands. In a submission to the town, the company listed about 50 neighborhood requests that it would accommodate, from the color of trim on the porch to the 10,000-square-foot minimum on lot sizes.

“A compromise has been reached with our neighborhood and LStar,” Weycroft residents wrote to Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson on Thursday. “The Weycroft neighborhood is excited about this new development. We respectfully request that the council vote to approve” the project.

Councilwoman Gale Adcock praised the final result and the parties.

“At the beginning it looks like they’re so far apart, and so much work is done. This is a terrific example of that,” Adcock said.

“Unfortunately, it took quite some time,” said Councilman Don Frantz. But all the “hubbub,” said Councilman Ed Yerha, resulted in a better proposal.

In either case, Councilman Don Frantz figures the return of contentious projects is a sign that Cary’s real-estate market is faring better.

With the Carpenter property rezoned, LStar now can fill in one more gap in the stretch of schools, parkland and residential development that has filled in Green Level Church Road, which is about a half-mile west of the future path of the Triangle Expressway.

“I think we’re the last ones on the road” from the old days, landowner Kristy Albert said last year. “Everybody else has sold and moved on.”

Now her land is set to become part of Cary’s far-western frontier, and the edge of Wake County.