A split D.C. Council yesterday paved the way for reopening the half-mile stretch of Klingle Road NW that runs through Rock Creek Park, a move that may finally bring resolution to a nasty 12-year neighborhood dispute.

The council voted 8 to 5 against a motion to turn Klingle Road into a recreational path for hikers and bikers. Instead, the council allocated $5.7 million in its fiscal 2004 capital budget to repave the road, which was closed to traffic after it flooded in 1991 and the city lacked money to repair it.

The council also tabled a vote on legislation that would either amend a controversial business licensing program or eliminate it. In addition, it voted to recommend that Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) review an aggressive parking enforcement program aimed at residents who have out-of-state license plates.

Many residents, based mostly east of Rock Creek Park, had lobbied for Klingle Road to be reopened because they said it would ease traffic congestion and allow them an easier path across town. But others, including Williams and many residents west of the park, favored spending about $1 million to turn the road into a recreational path.

The debate grew heated at times after some residents injected issues of race and social class into their arguments. Some east-siders said richer residents in western neighborhoods such as Woodley Park favored leaving the road closed to keep out less affluent residents from eastern neighborhoods such as Mount Pleasant.

"This is certainly a victory for us," said Laurie Collins, who lives in Mount Pleasant and helped lead the effort to open Klingle Road. "We look forward to getting the road repaired. We're going to monitor that and make sure it happens. . . . The sooner the better. It's been long enough."

The council voted against a last-minute motion by Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) to turn the road into a recreational path. But opponents of reopening the road promised to keep fighting.

"We're not going away," said Jim Dougherty, the Sierra Club's legal director. "The legislative campaign is over now. . . . But litigation is one of the tools that we use, and that's still out there."

Williams said he would not seek to block the move.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to ask Williams to review the city's record-keeping procedures for out-of-state vehicles that are parked overnight in residential neighborhoods.

Under the Registration of Out-of-State Automobiles program, the Department of Public Works sends out teams of roving parking enforcement officers nightly to place warnings and, eventually, $100 tickets on cars with out-of-state license plates -- under the presumption that they belong to D.C. residents.

Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) said that although she supports the program, she has been "bombarded" by callers who said they received tickets even after proving they were not D.C. residents.

Schwartz said the mayor should allow public works officials and police access to Department of Motor Vehicles records on people who have proven they are out-of-state residents. That way, those motorists would not receive erroneous tickets, she said.

The council's resolution is nonbinding and is meant to apply political pressure on Williams to fix the problem by July 8, when the council can "further consider its options," Schwartz said.

Also yesterday, the council tabled competing bills on the licensing of businesses. One would move forward with a major overhaul of the process, and the other would abandon the effort because the registration process has proved too complicated.

Council members Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) and Harold Brazil (D-At Large) want to amend the unpopular master business license program, and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) wants to eliminate it. The council tabled a vote on the matter until June 3; it also pushed back the deadline by which businesses must obtain a master business license from May 31 to June 30.

Staff writer Craig Timberg contributed to this report.