LEWISTON – Councilors and planners agreed that a development moratorium makes sense for Lewiston’s downtown – as soon as they figure out exactly what the downtown is.

City staff will give councilors and members of the city’s Planning Board a list of downtown areas along with a list of permitted uses by Friday, according to City Administrator Jim Bennett.

They’ll check off which uses they want to stop for next six months and return those lists next week. Bennett said he hopes to have a plans for the moratorium ready for council and public discussion within a month.

It will give city leaders a chance to make sure they don’t make a mistake, said Council President Tom Peters. He called for delaying new development decisions for six months to a year.

“There are many things that can be downtown by right, that I don’t think are appropriate,” he said. “Do you want to see a gas station right downtown on Lisbon Street? Do you want a factory there? I don’t think so.”

But first, Peters said the city needs to narrow its focus. He suggested looking at specific areas and creating different uses for each. He called the area between Lisbon Street and the river Lewiston’s “waterfront.” Uses there should be different than other parts of the downtown.

Councilors and planning board members agreed.

Mayor Larry Gilbert warned that the effort could conflict with planning committees already studying downtown issues. One, the Downtown Neighborhood Task Force, is studying housing and residential issues around Kennedy Park. A joint Downtown Master Plan Committee is studying development issues in Lewiston and Auburn.

But Bennett said the moratorium shouldn’t interfere with either group. The joint effort is looking for long-term solutions and trends while the housing group is studying a different part of downtown.

“What I’m hearing is we need to do something now, for the sake of the next year or so,” Bennett said.

Residents of the Oak Park apartment building attended the meeting to make sure bars and nightclubs were included in the city’s discussions. Resident Phyllis Plourde said the number of police calls to the area have been cut in half since two nightclubs, Club Adrenaline and The Blue Elephant, closed last year. Residents complained the nightclub’s patrons rowdiness caused Oak Park’s elderly residents to lose sleep.

Councilors refused to renew the clubs’ amusement permits because of the complaints, then enacted a moratorium on new liquor licenses around the apartments.

Make that moratorium permanent, Plourde said.

“We can go to bed at night now, and we don’t have to stay up until three or four in the morning because of all that noise,” she said.

City officials also heard a report from Bates College architect Pam Wichroski on the college’s plans for the next few years.

With the completion of a new dormitory and the Dining Commons, Wichroski said the college would be concentrating on rebuilding the Bates Chapel’s exterior and Roger Williams and Hedge Halls over the next three years. Plans call for increasing on-campus parking by 250 spaces after that.

But Wichroski said the school does not plan to expand enrollment over the next few years, remaining at about 1,700 students.