LEWISTON – City officials are considering expanding the Southern Gateway Development District to include the area up to Bartlett Street.

That would combine the city’s two largest redevelopment schemes, the Southern Gateway and the Heritage Initiative, according to Deputy Economic Development Director Lincoln Jeffers.

“All of the pieces that apply to the Southern Gateway apply to this area,” Jeffers said. “We thought that it would make sense to expand the boundaries, rather than create a new district from scratch.”

The plan goes before the Lewiston Planning Board at 7 p.m. Monday. The City Council will consider the plan on Sept. 21, if the Planning Board agrees.

City officials announced the Southern Gateway project in May 2003. The plan called for two new office buildings, hundreds of new jobs, new sidewalks and a new face for lower Lisbon Street.

The city created a development district for the area as part of the project. The district is a legal creation that defines the area as being especially blighted, poorly maintained, filthy and subject to crime and physical decay. It gives the city more leeway to take properties by eminent domain and encourages economic development there.

“It’s really a framework that draws attention to the area,” Jeffers said. “Nothing happens on its own, without going back to the City Council.”

The Heritage Initiative was announced this summer. The 10-year program is designed to pave over streets in the poorest section of the downtown, build new housing projects along Blake, Birch and Maple streets, and add new downtown office buildings.

“The Heritage Initiative, what we have planned there, really are the fingers that fit into the glove of the Southern Gateway,” Jeffers said. “The more we looked at it, the better it fits.”