OXFORD – The Oxford and Norway planning boards held a public hearing Wednesday night on the proposed Lowe’s home improvement store on Route 26.

Todd P. Morey, the site development manager, said the proposed home and garden center will occupy roughly 117,000 square feet opposite Hannaford supermarket and Pizza Hut restaurant. The site is 11.8 acres and straddles the Oxford-Norway line. It is leased from developers Bob and Gary Bahre of Paris.

Dennis B. Gray, chairman of the Norway board, opened the hearing at the town office. He said the boards would review materials on the site after the hearing and discuss the possibility of voting whether to approve the development.

Morey said Lowe’s has a lease agreement with the Bahres and will honor the necessary permits and prohibit certain uses of the site if the company leaves in the future.

He said the site would contain more than 400 parking spaces. Studies of other Lowe’s parking lots showed an average of about 350 parking spaces, and the number on the Route 26 site would be “more than enough,” he said

Lighting on the side of the building that borders Bartlett Street, a residential road, would be “very minimal,” and lights at the site would dim to security lighting at night.

Morey said snow would be plowed to the perimeter of the parking lot in the winter, but that Lowe’s would commit to removing snow if necessary.

Keith Curran, a project engineer, spoke on the utility plans of the proposed development. He said rainwater would be discharged into an infiltration tank at the rear of the building and two hydraulically connected basins at the front of the building. The basins will drain into the existing Route 26 drainage system.

He said the sewer for the site would connect to an existing sewer on Bartlett Street. Water would be split between Norway and Oxford, with fire protection coming off Norway’s system and domestic water off Oxford’s system. Electricity would be connected via an underground line to a pole on Bartlett Street.

Curran said “numerous shrubs and trees” would be planted as part of a landscaping project, several of them along Bartlett Street.

Tom Gorrill spoke of the store’s potential impact on traffic on Route 26. The proposed driveway to the land has two entrance lanes and three exit lanes for right and left turns, as well as through traffic to Hannaford and Pizza Hut.

Gorrill said the developers would also propose linking the traffic signal to one south on Route 26 at Pottle Road.

“They’re not really working together today,” he said.

Scott Hamilton, a resident whose property abuts the development site on the northwestern corner, expressed concern that new fill on the site would divert water onto his land. He also asked if there would be complications due to his driveway crossing a corner of the Lowe’s property.

Morey said the site has high absorption, and there was no standing water when he visited it after severe rainstorms. He also said Hamilton’s right of way would not be inhibited.