WESTBROOK – The proposed new Westbrook Comprehensive Plan – two years in the making – will face a Planning Board public hearing next week.

The Maine State Planning Office requires that communities update their comprehensive plan about every 10 years. The new plan does not call for any major changes from the one adopted in 2000, but it does make some tweaks. Among them are zoning changes that would allow more commercial and housing development along the Route 302 corridor.

“Westbrook will pursue changes to the zoning provisions in the Bridgton Road corridor that would enable more compact development with reduced curb cuts and a mix of uses, to include multi-family residential,” reads the plan. “Such development would be consistent with a smaller-scale traditional ‘Main Street’ corridor.”

The board, which could decide to send the plan to the City Council for final approval after the hearing, is seeking public comment on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m., in room 114 of Westbrook High School.

In the proposed plan, the city’s Comprehensive Plan Committee said that the development in the Route 302 area, which is a major route for commuters to both Portland and the Lakes Region, is generally “1960s style” commercial strips on small lots with each lot having at least one access point (also known as a curb cut), with single-family homes interspersed along with the commercial development. The committee said that the multiple curb cuts on the two-lane road has led to “less than desirable traffic conditions” that could slow down potential economic development along the road. The committee believes the new plan would help ease traffic and encourage more development in that area, bringing more tax revenue to the city.

“(The plan is looking to get) more residential activity,” City Planner Molly Just said. “There’s a lot of commercial activity there, and really once you allow a mix of uses in an area, you’re more likely to get two-story and three-story buildings and that area is really lacking in identity, for so many people, it’s a way to get to the Lakes Region or to get home to Windham. There are a lot of people who actually live there, and that is a main road in Westbrook and that needs to have some identity.”

Some larger developments may be desirable for the area, Just said, as long as they don’t adversely impact the people living there already.

“We want to enable more development there, maybe some larger-scale development,” Just said. “As long as it’s close to the road, creating a buffer for the neighborhood behind it.”

Development of the comprehensive plan began with some six months of work to determine a vision statement for the city for the next 10 years, or until the plan is next updated. Public participation was sought through a series of meetings with residents in individual wards and stakeholder groups. These meetings led to what was called a citywide visioning day.