LEWISTON — The latest draft of a master plan focusing on the city’s riverfront has a lot of suggestions,  including building walking and athletic paths along the Androscoggin River and the city’s canals, luring in new business and making the entire area more walkable.

But the biggest question remains: what to do with the Bates Mill Building No. 5, the massive saw-tooth roofed building that dominates the corner of Main and Canals streets.

The plan’s final recommendation for that lot and land underneath it may wait until the final draft is finished, just in time for the final April 4 public hearing.

“It’s a riverfront plan, so it needs to cover the entire area,” City Planner David Hediger said. “The Bates Mill No. 5 area is just seven acres of that entire riverfront. But it’s a very important seven acres.”

The plan, by consultants from the Boston firm of Goody Clancy, will show how the city can use and re-energize Lewiston’s Riverfront Island, the area between the river and Lewiston’s canals, from Island Point to Cedar Street. It includes the Bates Mill complex, Simard-Payne Memorial Park, the Franco-American Heritage Center and Museum L-A.

A glossy 50-plus-page document is nearly complete. Engineers from Goody Clancy released a working draft of the city’s plan to an advisory committee March 20.

The plan still has a few typos to fix and final graphics and photographs waiting to be inserted on the pages. The plan also leaves the final section, titled “Implementation,” entirely blank.

“That’s what they need to work on, still, an implementation plan and suggested schedule for getting things done,” Hediger said.

The plan spells out three elements to bringing the area to life. First, it calls for a Lewiston Riverwalk mirroring the path in Auburn, from Cedar Street and the Lown Peace Bridge to Island Point, crossing under Main Street and the Veterans Bridge at one point.

“What really needs to happen first? The consultants say it’s the amenities,” Hediger said. “They mean the Riverwalk, getting access to the river. Those are things that need to happen first in order to start selling and marketing the area.”

The plan also calls  for a tree-lined walking path all along the Lewiston’s Canal system, opening it up for walking and other athletic uses, including kayaking and canoeing.

Consultants recommend bringing new uses to the area, beginning with Museum L-A’s planned move to the Camden Yarn mill south of Simard-Payne Memorial Park. It calls for riverfront housing in the Continental Mill, light industrial shops in the Hill Mill, new commercial development on Island Point and retail and restaurant uses throughout.

But much of the plan hinges on Bates Mill No. 5. The consultants presented three possible scenarios for the future of the Bates Mill No. 5 in January. The first kept the building, the second replaced it with a significant downtown park and the third replaced the building with a retail development.

A mix of all three — preserving parts of the building and leaving room for a public space and some retail — was most popular for some of the people at the January meeting.

Planning Board member Paul Robinson, a member of the advisory group, said he’s ready to see it go.

“I think we’ve done our due diligence,” Robinson said. “It’s had its fair share of reviews and I think most people’s thinking has come around to, there’s not much else you can do with it.”

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