NORWAY – Residents with questions and a bit of skepticism gathered at the town office Thursday evening to quiz an engineer about the proposed technology park planned off Route 118 overlooking Norway Lake.

Work on the 162-acre park’s infrastructure and parking lot on Roberts Road will start next spring. The Oxford Hills Growth Council acquired $2.6 million in grants from the federal Economic Development Administration and from Otisfield to construct the site with the hope of attracting businesses to this struggling economic region.

The technology park is an innovative endeavor, which if successful could inject this town with new, progressive enterprises and more jobs. But some in town have expressed doubt about whether rural Maine can lure these types of organizations here, and whether the park might end up only partially developed.

“Who will populate these buildings?” David Kyle, an abutter to the park, asked Tom Dubois, an engineer working on the plans. “My purview is that Norway has an alarming number of unoccupied lots, and Route 26 has lots where people are not building. What reasonable expectation do you have with all this unoccupied space that people will come here and build?”

Lee Dassler of Western Foothills Land Trust echoed Kyle’s worry. “We could have empty parking lots on that hill for 20 years,” she said.

Dubois reminded residents that downtown Norway 10 years ago looked a lot more neglected than it does today, and that in the past decade, the town has seen a resurgence of commerce and activity.

“This is a much more unique situation than Route 26,” Dubois also said. “It’s beautiful on the hill. The views are spectacular. We’re looking to be green, environmentally friendly, and looking for progressive businesses.”

The site has been designed for 13 lots, 1,012 parking spaces, and will be developed on 38 acres. One lot has been drawn to accommodate an inn and conference center. The council will build the infrastructure and the parking lot, and businesses will be responsible for constructing their buildings.

Dubois addressed Dassler’s worry by saying the parking lot would be built in stages. “We’ll build it as buildings go up,” he said, “so we don’t end up with a white elephant out there.”

Dassler, speaking from a conservationist’s standpoint, also asked about easements for the land surrounding the developed portion of the park.

Dubois said that the forest would be covered by a conservation easement. This land, too, will be crisscrossed by of trails, if a local trail committee can raise the money to develop 2.7 miles of walking and skiing paths.

Several people wondered whether the views from the lake would be affected by the tech park. Dubois said the vegetation would be designed to create a filter, offering office workers views over the lake, and also making the park visible somewhat from down below.

“I do worry about the future of the lake,” Town Manager David Holt said. “You’re confident this development will not contribute to the water quality of the lake?”

Dubois reassured that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and the local Planning Board would review site plans to ensure that phosphorus run-off was minimized. The agencies would also review the site plans to determine the site’s effect on ground water.

The parking lot will be covered with a porous pavement, a permeable surface, which raised a question about the site’s impact on ground water. Dubois said he did not think long-term studies of porous pavement had been done in Maine.

Dassler also asked about where the workers would live. And also where they would eat lunch, which someone later joked might result in an influx of new restaurants at the other new development in town: the Libra Foundation project at the old C. B. Cummings & Sons dowel mill on Bridge Street in the downtown.

“The whole point of the project is to generate jobs,” Dubois said. “We think this is a regional project, drawing from at least a 30-mile radius.”