AUBURN — A plan to rezone three parcels along the western side of Center Street won City Council approval Tuesday, even though there is no specific plan to redevelop those lots.

Land owners said the current arrangement, with split zoning allowing general business development on the front but residential on back has made finding potential buyers or developers difficult.

Mike Gotto of Stonybrook Consultants Inc. owns one of the parcels at 400 Center St. and said it’s been vacant since August 2008. So far, the building has lost 25 percent of its value.

“If we don’t do something with this property, it’s just going to keep going down,” Gotto said. “I think it should be understood that if property on Center Street continues going down and down and down, it’s going to impact all of us.”

A majority of councilors agreed, voting 4-2 in favor of the zoning change, with councilors Dan Herrick and Belinda Gerry opposing it. It will come back for a second reading at its next meeting.

The Planning Board voted in May to recommend changing the zoning for 10 Blackmer St., 11 Alpha St. and the back half of 400 Center St. from urban residential to general business. The board also reviewed, but didn’t recommend changing the zoning on 18 W. Dartmouth St., just west of the former Paris Farmers Union.

All three are vacant and the three owners hope to sell them or to bring developers on the site.

The land is about a quarter-mile south of Mount Auburn Avenue and along the western side of Center Street between Dartmouth and Broadview streets.

The first parcel, 10 Blackmer St., backs up to the vacant Paris Farmers Union building at 410 Center St. Both the Blackmer and Center streets’ parcels are owned by Peter Chapman.

The second parcel, 400 Center St., is a vacant office building owned by Gotto. That lot had split zoning: the Center Street half was zoned for general business while the Blackmer Street was zoned for urban residential.

The third is a grassy lot at the corner of Blackmer and Alpha streets, owned by Peter and Constance Whitmore. It backs up to the commercially zoned office building at 392 Center St.

More than 35 neighbors attended May’s Planning Board meeting to argue against the proposal, fearing it would mean an increase in traffic and other impacts on the neighborhood. Herrick said he had heard from many of those neighbors, and their opinions mattered.

“Unless I know what I’m voting on here, I can’t vote in favor of it,” Herrick said. “We don’t know what’s being proposed. We don’t know what it’s going to mean. And I won’t approve something until I know what is going to end up there.”

But Gotto and Peter Whitmore said nothing is planned for the lots — yet.

“We hope the timing is right to attract a large commercial or national tenant,” Gotto said. “To do that, we need to show that these properties are fully used for commercial use with predictable results. Rezoning is critical to that.”

The Planning Board called for a wider buffer between the three lots and the neighborhood — within 25 feet of the residential streets. The back half of the property, which would face the neighborhood, would be heavily buffered and planted to keep the two areas distinct.

But councilors reduced that restriction to 10 feet. That angered neighbor Kathy Serpico, of 4 University St., who was one of only two neighbors who attended Tuesday’s meeting.

“When we had 35 people here, they gave us a 25 foot buffer,” she said. “And then, when no one is here, they make it 10 feet. It’s just not fair.”

Serpico also doubted that zoning has made renting or selling those properties difficult.

“It’s the economy,” she said. “They had businesses in those buildings before, and zoning was never an issue. But it’s a problem everywhere, all along Center Street.”

[email protected]