A development moratorium in downtown Lewiston is the opposite of what’s needed, which are more thoughtful efforts to identify what downtown should have, rather than what it should not.

The city has had success with moratoriums, such as on liquor licenses on Park Street, but it was questionable whether that moratorium was even needed. The problems around Oak Park stemmed from rowdy patrons of the now-closed Blue Elephant and Club Adrenaline, not the actual presence of bars or nightclubs.

Fostering the right establishments doesn’t start by prohibiting all of them.

Moratoriums are generally imposed to provide breathing room when developers are banging on the doorstep, but this scenario is not happening downtown at the moment.

In fact, development has pretty much slowed. The long-proposed development at Island Point is the last major project that is pending, but this proposed moratorium wouldn’t impact it, according to city officials.

What would this moratorium really stop? Well, nothing substantive. It’s a preventative measure, in case a proposal comes along that might not fit into what the city wants downtown.

So, this begs the question: what does the city want? This is where attention should be targeted.

The city council is now poised to decide which uses – also known as businesses – should be prevented from opening downtown under a moratorium. Yet a municipal exercise in restrictions wouldn’t get Lewiston any closer to its goals of revitalizing downtown.

A moratorium on businesses as a first step in improving downtown just seems counterintuitive. It also goes against recent city notions to attract businesses to downtown, such as offering tax credits to Lisbon Street developers.

Downtown Lewiston is home to hospitals, factories, gas stations, auto repair shops, funeral homes, offices, florists, schools, colleges, pharmacies, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, Laundromats, corner stores, newspapers and many community buildings, like libraries and churches, plus Lewiston City Hall and the district courthouse.

It’s a diverse economy in a diverse neighborhood. The council runs the risk, in its coming review of uses subject to the moratorium, of alienating existing downtown businesses by making them feel unwelcome.

There’s no reason to do so.

Downtown needs the city’s focus, but not from a seemingly arbitrary moratorium on what the city council will consider an undesirable use. It’s too late for the city to start deciding, now, what downtown should not have.

There’s plenty of time instead to start thinking – and planning – for what it should.