NEW GLOUCESTER – The concept of transferring residential development rights to a designated zone to manage future growth needs fine-tuning, Zoning Committee Chairman Donald Libby said.

The issue, aired publicly for the first time Thursday night at a forum at Pineland, is expected to be presented to voters in May.

The Transfer of Development Rights, as the concept is called, would allow landowners in some zones to sell development rights to landowners in other zones so the town could protect areas from development. The transfers are permanent and included with the land deed.

The purpose of the Transfer of Development Rights proposal is to give landowners another alternative in addition to tree growth and farm and forest property tax programs. It allows landowners to make a profit from selling development rights and relieves land from development pressure.

One proposed development zone is 5,466 acres along Route 100 through the center of New Gloucester. Town Planner James Isaacson said the area has been deemed the best environmentally for dense residential development.

“There is no way to stop it. We don’t want to allow development to sprawl over town,” he said.

Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth have enacted Transfer of Development Rights programs, though landowners have yet to exercise the tool, Libby said.

Property owner Owen Haskell said most towns that have adopted this tool already have public water and sewer.

“I think we should be extra cautious to standards of one acre per lot size or the town could get into the water and sewer business,” he said.

“When deed restrictions are placed on land, the assessable value is reduced, Selectman Steve Libby said. “New Gloucester in the past dozen years has had 66 new homes per year developed. I don’t like what I see.”

Selectman Steve Chandler of Chandler Brothers, a family-owned business that owns roughly 2,700 acres in New Gloucester, said, “We’re trying to lead the pack. It’s a gamble and we can’t sit still.”