LEWISTON — The City Council breathed life into a proposed senior housing project Tuesday, sending the conditional rezoning on a Webster Street parcel back to the Planning Board two weeks after voting it down. 

Despite a passionate response from neighbors who spoke out against the project, the council narrowly reconsidered the rezoning, voting 4-3. 

The Planning Board will be asked to place further conditions on rezoning the property, such as limiting the housing to those 55-and-older and studying the environmental impact.

Regardless of the study results, abutting residents said, they will not be in favor of the project. 

Landowners Louis and Laurie Ouellette have planned to combine the Webster Street property with adjacent properties under their ownership for a multiunit senior housing project. The house at 209 Webster St., a 2-acre lot, would be razed to make way for the development. 

The rezoning would change the property surrounding 209 Webster St. from the neighborhood conservation “A” district to the office residential district. The NCA district does not allow multifamily structures. The Ouellettes also own 151 and 153 East Ave., which are in the office residential district. 

Those in favor of the zone change argue that it will allow Ouellette to further study how he can develop his property, and that the area is in desperate need of senior housing. 

“We don’t know what he’s going to build and we won’t until he has the right to build there,” Planning Board Chairman Bruce Damon said.

Damon told the council that the Planning Board had just voted unanimously to send it on to the council, and that a negative vote “would send a message to the board that you don’t value our judgment.” 

City planning staff said the maximum allowable development on the lot would be 37 units, and three stories, but the presence of wetlands could affect the amount of developable land. 

The council voted to reconsider the item after roughly an hour and a half of discussion and continued discussion and public comment until 10 p.m., ultimately deciding to refer it back to the Planning Board. 

Councilors Tim Lajoie, Shane Bouchard and Michael Lachance voted against reconsidering the item and referring it back to the Planning Board. 

Residents spoke at length about their attachment to the tranquility of the neighborhood. Many said they had lived there for decades, and that it was a tight-knit residential area of single-family homes.  

An East Avenue resident said he bought his home 22 years ago because there were wetlands behind it and was told that nothing could be developed there. 

“We don’t want the game to be changed,” he said. 

Residents also questioned the lack of planning done so far by Ouellette. However, Ouellette said he would comply with the city’s planning process if the zone change was approved. 

Councilor Jim Lysen made the motion to refer it back to the Planning Board, with the added conditions.

The outcry from abutters swayed councilors who voted against, with Bouchard stating, “We either listen to the people, or we don’t.” 

Lajoie said the “animosity” between the developer and the residents is a sign that “we shoudln’t even be discussing this again.”

The council voted 3-4 on Jan. 3 to deny the rezoning, but Councilor Joline LandryBeam was absent.