Cape Elizabeth residents will have a chance to voice their concerns to the developer of a proposed 42-unit subdivision at a neighborhood meeting Thursday, Sept. 1. Developer Jim McFarlane organized the meeting, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

He said he wants to hear residents’ concerns with his Spurwink Woods subdivision proposal before he presents the plan for the second time to the Planning Board at a workshop Sept. 6. That way he can incorporate their concerns into the proposal.

The development was initially presented to the Planning Board Aug. 2. A large number of concerned residents and neighbors attended that initial workshop, but were not allowed to speak. McFarlane said he wanted to give them that chance. “If I was one of those residents I’d be frustrated if I could not say anything,” he said.

Spurwink Woods is proposed as a 42-unit subdivision that will be built on 25 acres tucked between neighborhoods off the northern section of Spurwink Avenue and McAuley and Killdeer roads. Since the 1980s two proposals have been made to develop the parcel, but both faced access problems. McFarlane’s plan meets local standards for access by linking two existing dead-end roads, Dermot Drive and Killdeer Road.

The area has been undeveloped for years and residents have used the land and its trail system for walking, running and cross-country skiing. The initial subdivision plans include walking trails, but Holly Tornrose of Hamlin Street said in a letter to Town Planner Maureen O’Meara “there are well established trails through this area of beauty that no trail system included in a subdivision proposal can emulate.”

She was also concerned about the displacement of wildlife living in the area of the proposed development and the impact on the existing homes. She said she has seen several deer and a moose in the area.

McFarlane is choosing the open-space zoning option for the development, which means that 40 percent, or 10 acres, of the parcel has to be left undeveloped. Those 10 acres will retain the wetlands that are on the western portion of the property.

McFarlane said he knows that increased traffic is an issue that will come up. He said he would bring a traffic engineer with him to the meeting to answer any questions about the plan for managing traffic flow.

Based on letters to O’Meara from concerned neighbors, residents believe the increased traffic would ruin quiet, child-safe neighborhoods and increase traffic at the “already dangerous corner” of Spurwink Avenue and Stephenson Street.

Tornrose said a neighbor had already installed a reflective mirror at that corner, “but one still feels their life in their hands when making the turn off Spurwink.”

Echoed throughout the letters was the concern that Spurwink Woods would be built at the expense of other neighborhoods. “New neighborhoods are good for Cape Elizabeth. They help the tax situation; they help the local businesses; and most importantly they give people and families the opportunity to live in our special town,” wrote David Brenner of Killdeer Road. “What I am not in favor of … is adding new neighborhoods at the expense of existing ones.”

“I feel as though our ‘little piece of heaven’ is coming to an end,” Nancy Wentworth of Columbus Road wrote. “Let them build their homes/condominiums, but not at our expense. … Have them do it without bothering us.”

McFarlane said he is expecting some criticism at the meeting, but he said it “goes with the territory.”