LEWISTON – The city will get its own review process for big retail projects.

Councilors voted 4-2 to create an economic review process for big-box retail developments. Councilors Robert Reed and Tina Bailey voted against the Lewiston process.

The decision would exempt the city from the state’s Informed Growth Act, approved by legislators last year. It’s designed to restrict retail development projects larger than 75,000 square feet.

The state’s act requires developers to pay for an economic study showing what changes that kind of big-box development will have on the surrounding community. It also requires those developers be named.

Cities and towns can opt out of the state’s requirements if they adopt economic reviews of their own as part of their review process.

Under both the state’s process and Lewiston’s, developers must pay for a consultant to do an economic impact analysis of any new big retail development. Under the state’s process, developers pay the state up to $40,000. The consultant must come from a state-approved list.

Lewiston’s plan lets developers pay the consultant directly and allows them to choose any qualified consultant. The city has the option of hiring a second consultant to review the first consultant’s work – at the developer’s expense.

The state’s process also requires the retailer to be named if it’s not the same as the initial developer. Lewiston’s process lets the retailer remain unnamed until it’s ready.