CAPE ELIZABETH – The Cape Elizabeth Town Council has accepted the final draft of a Town Center Plan that, if implemented, may require amendments to the town’s wetland protection ordinances, a proposal that is drawing opposition from residents.

Creators of an online petition turned in 238 signatures on Monday from residents who are protesting changes to Cape Elizabeth’s wetland protection rules that would ultimately encourage commercial, retail and residential development in the town center.

Stephanie Carver, chairwoman of the ad hoc Town Center Plan Committee that has spent the last year reviewing and updating the town’s 1993 Town Center Plan, submitted the final draft to the Town Council for review at the council meeting Monday. The draft plan includes a proposal to amend the wetlands protections across the town center district.

The Town Council voted unanimously Monday to accept the plan and to schedule a workshop in September in order to review the plan in depth. Implementation of the plan will ultimately require Town Council approval.

In February of 2013, the Town Council established the nine-member committee, consisting of five residents, two councilors, one member of the Planning Board and one member of the School Board, to update the 20-year-old Town Center Plan.

The plan calls for creation of a village green and other gathering places, improving pedestrian safety and recognizing the town center’s status as the central commercial area. It also calls for improving the town center’s visual appeal and seeking grants and tax increment financing districts to pay for the improvements.

The overall vision of the plan is “to create an identifiable, vibrant town center that includes mixed retail uses for residents and visitors, a safe and inviting pedestrian and bicycle environment, a common meeting place, visual vitality, and links to the town’s open space and nearby residential neighborhoods,” according to the plan.

Residents Sheila Mayberry and Connie Pacillo started the online petition last month under the name Cape Elizabeth Environmental Coalition. The petition asks residents to oppose “any alteration to the wetlands in the town center zone” and “any changes to Cape Elizabeth’s wetland protection ordinances.” On Monday, Mayberry handed a paper version of the online petition to the Town Council.

Residents Kelly Tarpo and Gerald French most recently signed the online petition. Both had similar reasons for opposing changes to Cape Elizabeth’s longstanding wetland ordinances in the town center.

“Wetlands have been protected and should remain protected,” wrote French. “They serve an important purpose for our environment.”

“Protecting our open spaces and environment is more important to me than development,” Tarpo wrote.

The idea of creating a village green on 4.5 acres of privately owned land, situated between Town Hall and the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust building on Ocean House Road, is being challenged by residents who would like to see the town’s wetlands and wildlife preserved rather than be used for commercial development.

“I would like the town to seriously consider the location of the former Cumberland Farms and the paved parking lot next to Town Hall for business development,” wrote Cape Elizabeth resident Sara Page on the petition’s website. “Changing wetlands protection is short-sighted and not a solution in keeping with our commitment to preserving natural habitat, rural areas and woodlands.”

In order to construct four commercial buildings on the property and a 1-acre village green, the property owner has requested the town to consider amending its wetland ordinance, which is outlined in the new Town Center Plan. Development of the property would require removing hundreds of trees and filling a 3,500-square-foot Resource Protection 2 wetland.

“In order to signal support for the village green development concept, the town should consider adoption of an amendment to the Town Center District that makes it clear that alteration of an RP2 wetland in the Town Center District would be acceptable where a substantial public benefit is created,” the plan states.

The Town Center Plan indicates that the property can be developed without a village green, but at the same time, “the green adds to the desirability of the potential development and advances town goals.”

Creating a town green with Route 77 frontage would encourage small businesses like coffee shops or restaurants to open in the town center, according to the plan. The plan also calls for the Maine Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit in the section of Route 77 in the Town Center, from an arterial “to a lesser classification more consistent with a main street.”

The development proposal includes one single-story retail building and three, two-story, mixed-use buildings, said Carver, the chairwoman of the town center committee.

The Town Center zoning district encompasses 144 acres. It stretches along Ocean House Road from the Cape Elizabeth United Methodist Church to the intersection of Old Ocean House Road, as well as the entire school campus. It also includes the section of Scott Dyer Road running from Ocean House Road to the middle school and a short section of Shore Road.

In terms of its size – 144 acres – Carver said that the Town Center District, where wetland protections could be altered, represents about 1 percent of Cape Elizabeth.

As part of the plan, the committee is also proposing creation of a tax increment financing (TIF) district in the Town Center to fund infrastructure improvements (such as constructing sidewalks to increase foot and bicycle traffic or a storm water management system) by capturing some of the value of new development in the town center.

“Limited development in Cape is fine,” wrote another resident, Debbie Fisher, on the petition’s website. “Changing wetland zoning in the Town Center area, but having stringent requirements in the rest of the town is hypocritical and unfair. Also, we want tax revenue from development, not a TIF.”

Carver said during the last year, the committee has held 17 meetings, completed a site walk of the Town Center District, had a joint meeting with the library planning committee and held a public forum in October, where more than 50 residents attended.

The committee also circulated a questionnaire about the Town Center Plan and collected comment from 82 residents, many of whom said that they would like to retain a rural town center. Others would like to see more development take place, including a town green.

“We tried to look at as much documentation from the town as we could,” Carver said, including sources such as the 1993 Town Center Plan, the 2007 Comprehensive Plan, zoning regulations and design guidelines.

Residents at Monday’s meeting had mixed reactions to the updated Town Center Plan, which can be reviewed on the town’s website, www.capeelizabeth.com.

Anne Carney, a local attorney, thanked the committee for its hard work to update the plan. She described the Cape Elizabeth zoning ordinance as a “carefully detailed document that provides a lot of standards that developers and residents alike have to comply with” when undertaking construction projects.

“When you look at the town center zoning standards in particular, they actually provide a lot more conformity than the other standards in the zoning ordinance,” Carney said, including specific requirements about parking location, building orientation, setbacks and landscaping rules.

“I think it benefits the town in significant ways and will help us create a beautiful and appealing town center zone,” Carney said.

However, while the proposed ordinance amendment suggests that creating a publicly accessible village green qualifies as “a substantial public benefit,” she said it does not clearly define what a public benefit is.

Suzanne McGinn, another resident who has attended several of the Town Center Plan Committee meetings, said that she opposes the recommendation to alter the wetland ordinance within town center boundaries.

“Cape’s existing wetland ordinances were originally implemented to protect Cape’s natural resources,” said McGinn. “The proposed change in the wetland ordinance outlined in the Town Center Plan sets a bad precedent for less-restrictive wetland protection and other areas around Cape in the future,” she said.

“When Cape surveyed its townspeople in 2005, 83 percent of Cape citizens valued protecting and preserving wetlands ponds and wooded areas,” said McGinn. “I see no reason to alter our wetland restrictions within the town center to accomplish the town green concept.”

One resident, however, said that she is content with the town center and village green concept that perhaps would have benches around a small pond.

“I’d love to see a town green next to the Town Hall,” said Valerie Hall.

“Every spot is not a vernal pool and cutting down trees on 1 acre in the center of town is not deforestation,” she said. “Our town should have woods, trails, neighborhoods, farms and a town center with small businesses and the town hall as a centerpiece.”

In other action Monday, the Town Council scheduled a public hearing for July 14 at 7 p.m. on the proposal to increase the number of seats allowed in restaurants within the town’s Business A zones from 80 to 100.