LISBON — Town leaders aim to target commercial development along routes 9 and 196 with a new master plan and possible zoning changes. And they want it soon.

“If it takes people two years to dream about it and to get people talking, they’ve long since lost track of what they were talking about in the first place,” Planning Board member Donald Fellows told the Town Council on Tuesday. 

If enough money can be found in the town budget, a consultant could be hired to focus the talk and gently push the town officials and the public toward a plan.

“It’s not a lot of money, but when it comes to next year’s budget, anything’s a lot of money,” Chairman Fern Larochelle said.

Town Manager Stephen Eldridge believes the cost of hiring the consultant could be worth it, though he offered no cost yet.

“It will help us,” Town Manager Stephen Eldridge said. “It’s critical that we start having these discussions so that people start looking to come here. We’ve had interest. We hope to know what part of the (Route 196) corridor to put businesses in that satisfies everybody.”

It’s never happened before, Councilor Michael Bowie said.

“We’ve kind of just hodge-podged it,” he said.

The Planning Board is currently working on the town’s comprehensive plan, which guides zoning and limits types of development to certain areas. 

Two possible zoning changes were discussed with the council in its workshop. They included an expansion of the diversified development zone to along Gartley Street.

More controversially, they examined a proposal to widen the types and sizes of businesses along Route 9, all the way to the town line near Maine Turnpike Exit 86.

With Planning Board approval, businesses along the area could include small offices and a variety of small businesses if they didn’t disrupt the residential nature of the area. Councilors disagreed on whether a new zone might need to be created to govern the corridor, whether the whole zone ought to be changed or if it should be done at all before the the master plan work is done.

Councilors talked about whether the town might be needlessly repeating its work and its effect on Route 9.

Route 9 has changed its flavor in the last few years with this (road) reconstruction and with the idea of its being a major route,” Larochelle said.

Its proximity to the turnpike and the growing amount of traffic makes it a new gateway to the town, he said.

“With the new entrance off the highway in Sabattus, Route 9 is as much of a gateway to our town as Route 196,” Larochelle said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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