NORWAY – Local officials agreed Thursday night that, like it or not, some land use controls are probably going to be necessary to ensure the successful growth of the town, particularly in the downtown area.

“There seemed to be agreement that we need to draw some lines, which means zoning,” said Fergus Lea, an engineer with the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, when asked for his assessment of the meeting.

Selectmen and the Planning Board met to continue their annual discussion over the implementation of the town’s Comprehensive Plan that was approved by voters several years ago. The town has no zoning, except for a recently state-mandated 250-foot setback along shorelines, Lea said. A committee of several officials and a few citizens have been reviewing the Comprehensive Plan. No action has been taken to implement recommendations which, for example, call for changes in density of one acre in the Pike’s Hill and Country Club areas and two acres in the rest of town.

“We as a town need to provide a place for people to live, but we also need to provide people a place to work,” Selectman Les Flanders said. “I hate over-regulation, but we’re going to be beating ourselves over the head in a couple of years when the easy land is gone….I think we have to make some tough decisions in short order or it will be too late.”

One of the major questions, officials agreed, is what types of land use regulations can be implemented without infringing too much on people’s rights to do what they want on their land within reason.

“Most people will say we need some sort of zoning as long as it doesn’t affect them,” selectmen’s Chairman Russell Newcomb said.

The options presented Thursday included zoning that would designate certain parts of the downtown, and possibly gateways (the entrances to the downtown area such as on Route 26 to the east and on Routes 117 and 118 from the north) for commercial development; implementing design standards that are outlined in the Comprehensive Plan and mandating a lower density of housing than is currently allowed.

“I don’t think there’s any easy answer,” Lea said.

Town Manager David Holt told the group that if the comprehensive plan is to remain a viable document, strategies within it need to be implemented.

“The view of what’s good for Norway changes over what it was perhaps 10 or 20 years ago,” he said. “We need to use the information before it gets old. … Let’s do things now before we have to develop another plan.”

Holt said it is hard to gauge what townspeople want. “I do hear calls for more restrictions than in the past, certainly in the downtown area, and as we get more subdivisions.”

But with only three dozen people responding to a townwide survey this year about land use and no substantial response to calls to join the Comprehensive Plan review committee, officials said it is hard to get a good sense of what townspeople want.

Officials have asked that anyone interested in participating in the committee, which will begin to determine what, if any changes, will be implemented to land use in Norway, contact the town manager’s office to volunteer time or thoughts.

Voters will have to approve any land use changes that may be developed over the coming months at next year’s annual town meeting. A public hearing must also be held prior to a town vote on a new ordinance.