NORWAY – The Planning Board on Thursday unanimously approved, with conditions, the site plan application for an $8.2 million medical office building downtown.

“I’m issuing the building permit today,” Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman said Friday.

The move clears the way to break ground on the project by Western Maine Health to construct the building as part of a $10 million project to meet increasing health care needs.

The 25,000-square-foot office complex will be built on an 8-acre lot purchased by Western Maine Health about seven years ago. The site is the former C.B. Cummings & Sons wood mill on Pikes Hill Road.

The application approval was given with four conditions:

* Obtaining a Maine Department of Transportation traffic movement permit;

* Submitting a maintenance plan for catch basins and erosion control;

* Submitting a sign plan, which will be approved by the code enforcement officer; and

* Assuring that noise of the roof mechanics complies with required decibel levels.

Previous board meetings with the applicants have focused partly on concern about more traffic at the intersection of Main and Whitman streets and Pikes Hill.

The data for the traffic permit will be sent to MDOT officials, who will meet with town officials to review it.

Board Chairman Dennis Gray sat out the process because he is an abutter to the project.

Western Maine Health has 12 affiliated medical entities, including Stephens Memorial Hospital on Lower Main Street.

ldixon@sunjournal.com