Councilors hosted a joint workshop meeting with the Planning Board to look at changes.
LEWISTON – City staff will begin working on a new zoning map with fewer zoning districts that would encourage high-end housing in the south end of the city and around No Name Pond.
A list of top priorities should be in the hands of the City Council and Planning Board in April, according City Administrator Jim Bennett.
“We’ll go back and see what issues are the most important, based on the discussion we had tonight,” Bennett said. “We’ll see what’s most important and what’s feasible and come back with a list of priority projects.”
Councilors hosted a joint workshop meeting with the Planning Board Tuesday night to look at changes to the city’s zoning ordinances.
“We are seeing more development pressure now than at any time in the last 20 years,” Bennett told the group. “It’s good in many ways. But stuff is happening now and we have a limited influence on it. It’s really important we look at changing things.”
Bennett said he believes Lewiston could attract $300,000 homes to the extreme southern part of the city and the area surrounding No Name Pond. The market is right for it, he said, and the city could adapt its zoning codes to encourage it.
“The people coming up to Lewiston now from the Portland area are used to those kind of requirements and paying outrageous prices,” Bennett said.
The group agreed, and also suggested considering changes to the all residential area along College Street, perhaps encouraging light retail and restaurants to make it friendlier to Bates students.
But the group felt that the city’s main roads, especially Lisbon, Sabattus and Main streets, need special attention. Secondary arteries like East Avenue are important as well.
“The character of many of these roads is changing,” said Planning Board Chairman Jeffrey Gosselin. “People that are going to the civic center go down East Avenue, and so do people going to Bates. The people are flowing down there, so we need to look at what we want to do about it.”
staylor@sunjournal.com
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