Cape developer Joel FitzPatrick will finalize the purchase of land behind Two Lights General Store by the end of the month, if the Planning Board approves his proposal to build an 8,000-square-foot office building with two apartments.

The board walked the site with FitzPatrick and the parcel’s neighbors Tuesday. A public hearing on the proposal is slated for Tuesday, June 21, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

The development will be behind and to the right of Two Lights General Store and will have an entrance and 24-car parking lot off Davis Point Lane, which is currently a 14-foot-wide private, dirt road leading to two private homes. The plans call for the road to be widened to 18 feet and paved.

Town standards normally require the road be 22 feet wide, but the Planning Board appears to be leaning towards waiving that requirement, said Town Planner Maureen O’Meara.

Davis Point Lane will also need to be moved seven feet sideways, to center the road within the 40-foot right of way, making room for drainage, snow storage and future improvements, O’Meara said.

“I know we can’t stop it,” said Gail Schmader, who lives across Davis Point Lane from the proposed development.

Her main concern is retaining the natural buffer that now separates her home from the parking lot of Two Lights General Store. Her bedroom windows look onto Davis Point Road and a buffer of trees, but the road move and widening means many of the trees will be removed.

FitzPatrick said he will save as much of the natural buffer as possible, and will plant evergreens afterwards as a new buffer in the seven-foot wide section that will be left open after the road is moved sideways. O’Meara said she thought it will be a better situation in the future since the road will be moved further away from the residential homes, the road will be centered to allow for drainage and after the evergreens are planted there will be a natural buffer from road and the parking lot.

At the back of Schmader’s home FitzPatrick will also install wooden stockade fencing to stop headlights from shining over from the development’s entrance and parking lot.

FitzPatrick is a local developer who has three residential subdivisions in town: Leighton Farms, Whale Back Ridge and Autumn Tides. His offices are currently at 299 Ocean House Road, but he said he would move them to his new building if the plan goes through.

A zoning ordinance change was also necessary to allow FitzPatrick to include two apartments in the two-story building. The property is in a business zone, which allowed for multiplexes to be built, but not multi-family dwellings. The Zoning Board agreed to the change. FitzPatrick said he wanted to add the apartments because the town was interested in seeing more affordable housing.

Another hurdle FitzPatrick had to contend with was the critical wetland zone that the property was found to be situated in. Town ordinance usually imposes a 250-foot buffer between the wetlands and development. However, because the area is already densely developed – with six structures within a 250-foot radius from the center of his building – the buffer is reduced to 100 feet.

His initial plans had his building in a slightly different spot which did not qualify for the buffer reduction, so he moved the property line and moved the building site.

“You gotta get creative,” said FitzPatrick, who has been working for a year on the project, which he said is the 14th or 15th he has had in front of the Cape Elizabeth Planning Board.

The Planning Board could approve the project the night of the public hearing, after which time FitzPatrick could close on the property and begin development.

From left to right; developer Joel FitzPatrick, Engineer Owens McCullough and Town Planner Maureen O’Meara (far right) look at plans for the Two Lights Professional Center with interested neighbors.