Like L.L. Bean in Freeport or Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, visiting Portland is incomplete without strolling the Old Port. Officials in Maine’s largest city know this well, and go to great lengths to protect its signature district, which is clustered with bars, restaurants and shopping.

The mere mention of a chain-store interloper sends the community into a frenzy, such as the recent open season on a risqué owl-logoed restaurant known for its waitstaffs’ cleavage, which has spurred an effort to restrict “formula eateries” in the Old Port and the city’s Arts District .

Lewiston-Auburn is different, as the Twin Cities are enjoying and embracing “formula” retail growth. But the phrase “Old Port” has emerged from the lips of police, club owners and city residents during conversations about the battle over pedestrian noise on Park Street.

And why not? The cities have the infrastructure to create a vibrant downtown scene of restaurants, clubs and bars. The Bates Mill complex, for example, is the perfect chrysalis for L-A’s Old Port-equivalent to gestate: accessible, away from residential neighborhoods and available.

“You set up the Bates Mill for me, I’ll move in a heartbeat,” said Carmine Cartonio, the owner of Club Adrenalin on Park Street. “It would be great to have all the clubs in one area. You’ve just created an Old Port scene.”

Cartonio’s sentiment is perhaps the one notion on which he, and the club’s neighbors in the Oak Park Apartments, can agree. In conversations about the noise from Park Street clubs, elderly residents of the complex have wondered aloud why clubs and bars are not clustered elsewhere, far away from their building.

There’s a simple reason: clustering “drinking places” in Lewiston is restricted by city ordinance. “The regulation of the density of … drinking places is intended to permit the location of such establishments within the community, yet ensure that they will not become overly concentrated in neighborhoods or areas to the detriment of other uses,” the code says. The distance restriction can be either 300 or 500 feet, depending on the section of town.

The ordinance, like many drafted to solve an immediate problem, has impacted the future. Lewiston’s nightspots are spread haphazardly, and some believe the ordinance is a disincentive for development, as other clubs or restaurants have run into it when eyeing available spaces downtown.

This reason alone makes it time to review this ordinance. Revision could also help alleviate the decades-old tensions on Park Street, give restaurant and club owners a better chance of surviving, and stop the nightclub merry-go-round that’s been a hallmark of L-A’s nightlife.

Is L-A ready for an Old Port? With the Bates Mill’s revival, it’s a distinct possibility. But it’s likely nothing can happen with this ordinance, as written, in place. We urge a city review.

After all, if the Park Street clubs and residents can agree on it, it must be right.