WATERTOWN, N.Y. — While development plans for an 18-home neighborhood on the former Ogilvie Foods plant site could change, as city officials say site preparation costs may escalate due to the amounts of left over shock rock and foundation, Neighbors of Watertown Inc. says it hasn’t ruled out the idea of instead converting the site into a park.

“If it’s too expensive to make it shovel-ready, you still don’t want it to sit there and be a blight on the neighborhood so the thought was maybe we could just pull in some top soil, recreate the site and make it a nice neighborhood park,” Neighbors of Watertown Chief Executive Officer Gary C. Beasley said.

The initial plan, according to Beasley, was for the city to pave a 620-foot road at a cost of $1 million, with water and sewage installation included, and subdivide the site’s land, currently zoned industrial.

“They were going to make the site what’s called shovel-ready,” Beasley said. “That can’t be done because of all the foundations from the factory that was there, so the city needs to put a number to what it will cost to make the site shovel-ready.”

According to Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham, who said the project is “getting more problematic as you look at the site,” the fate of the Ogilvie site remains in the hands of City Council, waiting on City Manager Mary M. Corriveau for updated projected site construction costs.

“Without numbers, I can’t proceed,” Beasley, whose organization is also waiting on numbers, said.

Graham gave no indication on when Corriveau would have the estimated costs ready for review.

The Neighbors of Watertown CEO said while surveyors were marking test holes where homes were to be built on the site, an additional oil tank was found underground causing more problems.

“Right now they’re kind of wild cards we don’t know the answers to,” he said.

City officials said the tanks on the city-owned site were likely installed before the 1980s, apparently before it was required to map their locations. Beasley, however, said the DEC had records that the tanks existed.

Graham said he still has hope for site development on the lot, even if it means eliminating the proposed street-approved by the City Council last December to be named after former Mayor Joseph M. Butler-and just building two or three homes.

“It’s not really responsible policy when you knock something down to just abandon it,’ Graham said. “If we do have to scale it back and there’s no street in there, we’ll take care of it some other way.”

The mayor said if site development becomes too costly, City Council would likely find a different road to name after the former mayor.

Corriveau could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.