A retail-residential project proposed for Route 1 in Scarborough would be the first intended to make the busy road feel more like a traditional town main street.

The Bessey Square project would be a “live-works” building, according Joe Laverriere, the senior engineer at DeLuca-Hoffman Associates.

Scarborough Planning Board gave the project site plan approval at its Sept. 18 meeting, putting the project closer to final approval.

Bessey Square would be located on Route 1 by Ward Street, about half a mile from Oak Hill and nearly across from the Scarborough Town Hall. The project would be a mix of commercial and residential uses, with nine apartments, 6,700 square feet of office space and 8,400 square feet of retail space. Laverriere first presented the site plan to the board at its Aug. 8 meeting on behalf of Kerry Anderson of KDA Development.

Of the nine apartments, six of them would incorporate the live-works idea. Whoever buys one of these spaces would have the option to work in the space below and live in the apartment above. Owners can also decide to sublease the office or apartment space as well.

One part of the commercial space could be a Starbucks. At the Aug. 8 meeting, Anderson said that while no official deal was in place, Starbucks had expressed interest, though no further information was available Monday.

“This is all very exciting,” said Susan Auglis, the board chairwoman. “When mixed use first appeared, this is exactly what we had in mind. This is an illustration of years of work to see Oak Hill become a main street. This is the first applicant who has shown what that might look like.”

“This is trying to go back to the way towns used to be done,” said Laverriere said Tuesday. Bessey Square would recall the traditional main street storefront with apartments above, he said.

More details about the project need to be resolved with the town before construction can begin, however.

With the town’s comprehensive plan recently updated, there is more mixed-use zoning space available, said Auglis. Now that the comprehensive plan is starting to be implemented, more projects that could make Route 1 more like a traditional Main Street will be encouraged, she added.

“We’re trying to create a main street, or as close to one as you can get when your main street is Route 1,” she said.

A way to make a main street feel is to have more two-story buildings, put parking in the back and have driveways closer together, said Auglis.

“All of this is so it doesn’t look like a suburban strip,” she added. “Which, face it, Route 1 has always been.”

“I think that this is the type of project that the town has been asking for,” said board member Michael Wood. “This is us saying this is a main street.”

Other projects, said Auglis, will be asked to try and work with the main street idea as much as possible.

At the meeting on Monday, Auglis told representatives from Saco & Biddeford Savings Bank that if they wanted to build a proposed 3,900-square-foot building at the corner of Gorham Road and Hannaford Drive, they should seriously think about a two-story bank.

“We’re trying very desperately to change how Route 1 looks,” said Auglis on Monday night. “Please, not another one story building.”

The Bessey Square project would include nine apartments, office space and retail space. Six of the apartments would be “live-work” space where someone could have an office below his or her living space. Owners could also sublease either portion of the live-work unit.