It’s no secret that relations between Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. City Council are chilly.

Council members still harbor bruised feelings over Fenty’s days as a member from Ward 4. They remember the young politician thumbing away on his BlackBerry while they debated important matters. He, of course, was

communicating with constituents who would vote him into the mayor’s suite.

First day as mayor, Fenty steamrolled the council with his plan to take control of the schools. He proposed; it complied.

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During his first year in office, Fenty got low marks for collegiality from many of the 13 council members. Fenty would say he was simply moving forward on all fronts, as quickly as possible, and the council should get on the Fenty Freight Train.

Need I dredge up the baseball ticket dust-up? The Nationals bestowed a box in the new ballpark on the City Council; somehow, Fenty got his hands on the tickets and attempted to dole them out to favored council members. The tactic served to unite the council and forced Fenty’s lawyer, Peter Nickles, to personally deliver all the tickets to Council Chair Vince Gray.

Why — when the city is relatively calm and summer is upon us — must I muck around in all this unpleasantness?

Because unless Fenty and the council make peace, I see skirmishes leading to war over the most important issue facing the city — development and redevelopment of vast reaches of our town.

The key combatants could be Fenty and at-large Councilmember Kwame Brown. Fenty and his development czar, Neal Albert, are signing development deals on a weekly basis. It’s not an overstatement to say large parts of the capital city will be remade in the next decade, especially along the Anacostia River. It’s up to Brown, chair of the economic development committee, to oversee the deals.

Will Fenty give away too much in developing Poplar Point? Will low-income residents of Barry Farms get to return once their housing projects are rebuilt? Will the ambitious plan to transform the slum at Sursum Corda to the mixed-income community called Northwest One work?

“We should be brothers,” Brown says. They are, kind of. Both grew up in Mount Pleasant; both are Kappa Alpha Psi members.

The lack of trust between the Fenty side and Brown is getting toxic. When Brown tried to pass a bill making developers accountable for predevelopment promises, Fenty opposed it. Brown did an end run and passed it.

Over the next few months, Fenty’s team will have to bring many major development deals to the council for review by Brown, who has put together a solid staff.

“It’s rough now,” Brown tells me. “I think it will work itself out.”

If not, Brown has the support of his colleagues.

“Let’s assume Kwame has a legitimate case,” Vince Gray tells me. “I will unequivocally back him up.”

Which means development could get backed up, and that’s more important than who gets good baseball tickets.