OXFORD – It appears likely that a traffic light will be needed at the entrance to a new Home Depot shopping center on Route 26, even though another traffic light, serving the Wal-Mart store, is just a short distance south on the busy highway.

At an initial presentation about the project Thursday, the Oxford Planning Board voted to have the developer, W/S Development, foot the bill for a consulting engineer to help the board with its review of the 180,000-square-foot project.

Board Chairman John Palmer said the town did not ask Wal-Mart to pay for a board consultant for their project, and now “it wishes it did.”

Larry Bastian of Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers Inc. of Gray said traffic consultants have told the development team that a traffic light isn’t absolutely essential, “but it’s close.”

Palmer and some residents noted that a traffic light would impede access to the existing NAPA Auto Parts store. But Bastian said NAPA store owner Neal Cohen was looking forward to being part of the shopping center and had indicated he was willing to work with the developers.

The existing Lars Road, serving the NAPA store, would need to be discontinued as a town road by the voters, Palmer said. Bastian said that road would still be used to serve the restaurant, but would need be restricted to right turns only, in and out.

With that turning restriction, southbound traffic could access the NAPA store only by using the main shopping center entrance roughly in the center of the old drive-in property.

Board member Jack Allen had concerns about a second traffic light so close to the Wal-Mart one.

“We’ve already got one situation like that, at Pottle Road and at the Hannaford store,” he said. During peak traffic, the two dedicated lights tend to create a stop-and-go traffic flow with traffic backups.

Bastian said he was meeting next week with the town’s fire chief and code enforcement officer to discuss concerns over whether there is adequate water to serve the project. The Home Depot will require more water for fire protection because of its outside garden center.

Bastian said he believed the water concerns can be resolved. He said the developers are also looking for a break on the town’s parking requirements.

Oxford requires between four and five parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of development, and the developers want that increased to six parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of development.

Bastian said six spaces is the industry standard and reduces the amount of parking lot surface that has to be created.

Mark Conley of W/S Development gave a rough estimate of the project cost at about $7 million.

Palmer told Bastian it wasn’t his intent to obstruct the project by having a board consultant help them with the project.

“I don’t want (the consultant) second-guessing your project” in major ways, such as requiring a major redesign. “But we need someone to help us in an affirmative way.”

Bastian said the developers want to have the Home Depot store open by next January. The mixed-use retail section of the shopping center, with around 45,000 square feet of retail space, would be built after the Home Depot is complete.