The Athens-Clarke Commission approved a pocket park in the Boulevard neighborhood Tuesday night as talk turned to race, protest and poverty.

The commission voted 9-1 to let residents build Boulevard Woods, a passive park with trails and benches on 2.3 county-owned acres off Barber Street, with Doug Lowry the lone commissioner to oppose the project.

Debate over the park exposed a race and class rift in the community, according to Commissioner Ed Robinson. Tennie Brookins, an African-American woman who lives next door to the site, has expressed concerns about crime, vagrants and privacy if the park is built.

"There are unseen divisions in this community," Robinson said during a lengthy lecture on local race relations. Black residents often feel left out of discussions about civic issues, he said.

Robinson's comments didn't sit well with his colleagues.

"I find them offensive," Commissioner Andy Herod said.

Boulevard residents were worried about Brookins' concerns and went out of their way to address them, Commissioner Kathy Hoard said.

Brookins said Tuesday that she's "not thrilled" with the park, but she'll be OK with it as long as the Boulevard Neighborhood Association abides by a contract with Athens-Clarke County. That agreement will dictate where trails and benches are placed, and require improvements to a driveway she'll share with maintenance volunteers and a new wrought-iron fence to protect her property while preserving her view, officials said.

"I would expect that whatever is outlined in that document will be what you see on the ground," Commissioner Kelly Girtz said.

Nearby residents overwhelmingly support the park, according to Boulevard Neighborhood Association surveys, and dozens of volunteers have already spent hundreds of hours improving the property. The association also agreed to pay for construction and maintenance.

"I can state for a fact that Boulevard Woods would be a very well-loved park," volunteer Rachel Watkins said.

Athens needs to have a conversation on race, Keith Johnson, head of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told commissioners during the public comment period.

Several members of the protest group Occupy Athens also spoke out in opposition to a proposed "urban camping" law the commission's Legislative Review Committee is considering. The law hasn't been drafted yet, but similar ones in Atlanta and elsewhere ban sleeping on sidewalks, in parks and on other public property.

About 500 homeless people live in Athens, a city with only about 200 shelter beds. Jesse Houle asked where the rest would go if they couldn't sleep under the North Avenue bridge, a long-time homeless camp, or on other public land.

"It is more of an anti-protest, anti-homeless law," he said.

One North Avenue resident, Jesse Kuzy, said he supports the law. Kuzy said he sees prostitutes and drug dealers on North Avenue, around a homeless shelter at the corner of Willow Street and on the North Oconee River Greenway, and he's afraid of being mugged when he walks by.

The proposed law is intended to make sure protesters and homeless people are safe, not to run them off, commissioners said.