The Roanoke City Council unanimously approved spending $125,000 to secure an option to buy Countryside Golf Club for $4.1 million Monday, but the city isn't going into the municipal golf course business.

Rather, the city will use the option to spend the next several months studying the potential of a range of housing and other development on the 140 acres, in order to address a need for new and diverse housing options identified in the 2001 comprehensive plan. The next step will be seeking proposals from private developers.

A study completed in 2003 showed the potential for more than 130 single-family homes, about 180 town homes and apartments, a neighborhood center, open public spaces and possibly office or business space, a city news release said.

The nonrefundable cost of the option would be applied to the price negotiated with The Fairways Group LP, a division of Meadowbrook Golf of Championsgate, Fla.

The option lasts through Oct. 28. If the city goes through with the purchase, the sale would close by the end of November.

Councilman Brian Wishneff said there might be a brief period when the city would continue to operate the golf course, but that would be for a limited time while plans come together for development of the land. Wishneff said there's a long way to go before anyone will know what development there will look like.

The council also approved spending $15,000 for environmental inspections, surveys and other evaluation of the property. All of the spending approved Monday will come from the city's capital projects fund interest earnings.

Any changes to the use of the Northwest Roanoke property, which borders Interstate 581 opposite Roanoke Regional Airport, "will be considered only after community input and public comment as required by the zoning process," the news release said.

The city approached Meadowbrook Golf about the land, which was not being marketed for sale, said Geary Leathers, vice president of operations. Countryside has been a financial success, but the company realized that with part of the 18-hole course on land owned by the airport it might not always be available for golf.

Mayor Nelson Harris emphasized the importance of the city's seizing such an opportunity, which has been discussed in city government since at least 2002.

"In a city that is landlocked, we rarely have the opportunity to control ... the development of open space in the city," he said.

Though talk Monday focused on residential development, Wishneff sees business possibilities, too, especially with Spectacle Lens Group, owned by Johnson and Johnson, and Virginia Trane as current neighbors.

The stretch of the property along Interstate 581 would be "a wonderful opportunity for light manufacturing and office use," he said. The one-time city economic development director said Roanoke has been trying for 20 years to get land like this along the interstate.

The purpose of the purchase, however, is to provide the city a rare opportunity for a "housing cluster" - building a mix of living quarters in one area with a range of housing type, price and scale.

Roanoke's comprehensive plan, adopted in 2001, calls for the city to broaden the range of housing choices and to facilitate the development of new housing clusters by redeveloping underused or vacant land in the city for pedestrian friendly, mixed-use neighborhoods. Accordingly, the city began a study of the Countryside property in mid-2002, and began talking terms with The Fairways Group in early 2003.