SOUTH PORTLAND – During a marathon workshop session lasting more than four hours Monday, South Portland councilors tackled zoning and traffic changes for Willard Square.

The small neighborhood at the intersection of Pillsbury and Preble streets has been a focal point of council discussion since late April, when a group of local residents rose up to oppose a proposed development in the square.

Much of the public ire seemed predicated on a belief that another business in the square would tip an already congested traffic pattern over the edge, creating a public endangerment.

At a council workshop May 9, person after person, in testimony lasting nearly an hour, rose to complain that Willard Square already is “an accident waiting to happen.”

However, a traffic study prepared by DeLuca-Hoffman Associates turned up no evidence of recent trouble, despite anecdotal reports. There have been only three “fender-benders” in the square since 2003, and no documented evidence of an accident involving a pedestrian.

“It’s a very safe area and I think the concerns about current use were people getting a little over-excited,” said Councilor Tom Coward.

Although more than 50 people attended the May 9 workshop, and kept on the heat in emails and phone calls until a building moratorium was passed June 6, few have stuck with the process. On Monday, only five people were present. Of those, the only person who spoke about traffic concerns was Glenn Perry. Perhaps ironically, it was opposition to Perry’s proposed “Mr. Delicious” eatery that prompted the first spate of public outrage.

Perry claims to have lost more $55,000 in design costs and fees when financial backing fell away in the face of the building moratorium.

Perry, who lives on Pillsbury Street, presented the council with pictures taken from his mobile phone of delivery trucks illegally parked in Willard Square while servicing existing businesses there, like Bathras Market and Scratch Baking Co.

“The ax I’m grinding is that I continue to feel that we need to do something about the existing businesses that, due to ‘grandfathering’ provide no off-street parking,” said Perry. “I hope we can bring the people now responsible for this traffic being into the Square into the solution.”

“Well, we can solve that immediately,” said Councilor Tom Blake. “If there are parking violations, we need to get on top of that.”

The council also reviewed several DeLuca proposals to reconfigure the square, including looks at the area with rotary, and with Preble Street brought to a ‘T’ at Pillsbury Street, creating an open, park-like space in front of Bathras.

“The geometry of that square has a lot of history and a lot of sentiment for people who live in that area,” said Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis. “People get really uptight about anyone trying to make a circle out of their square. We may want to thing about changing the geometry of something that doesn’t really need changing.”

“A lot of what we’re looking at seems more for dressing things up than improving safety,” agreed Coward.

Also put on the table by DeLuca was a change to Thompson Street -making its entry onto Pillsbury Street a left turn only, away from Willard Square – as well as a rejiggering of parking spots in the now-banned area around the local fire house.

Meanwhile, design standards – ostensibly the reason for the temporary building ban, giving the city the time to create rules left out in 2006 and 2009 rezoning attempts – have failed to attract much public interests since Perry announced in mid June that he would take his food store to nearby Knightville. That pattern held true Monday, as not one person offered comment on the proposal before the council.

The council itself, however, knocked the new rules around for about 90 minutes. While most appeared happy with the proposal, and all lauded Tex Haeuser’s planning department for its work, there was some dissent.

“It seems a lot of this is too subjective,” said Councilor James Hughes.

“I’m not thrilled with these design criteria,” he added, decrying bans on corrugated metal and pre-cast concrete and other requirements that, he claimed, might kill development in the area by over-pricing the market.

“I think this hurts us as much as it helps us,” said Hughes. “If we used these standards, we’d look just like suburban Maryland. That’s not bad, it’s just not Maine.”

“That’s what makes it hard to set a design standard,” agreed De Angelis. “There is not standard in Willard Square. It’s all different, and that’s what living in Maine is all about.”

The council will get several bites at the design apple over the next month, each with a change to mold the current proposal.

A workshop session will be held Monday, Aug. 22, at the Community Center, time to be determined. Willard Square zoning rules will then come up for a first reading at the councils Sept. 7 meeting, will a second reading, and possible enactment, at its Sept. 21 session.

Because that latter date will fall after the expiration of the current building moratorium, the council may need to push for an extension at its next meeting, Monday, Aug. 15. That session is scheduled to kick off in council chambers with a workshop on unrelated matters at 5:45 p.m.