In many Maine communities, the question of whether to install a traffic signal at a street intersection might seem like a ho-hum matter.

But in Cape Elizabeth, town residents are passionately debating the idea of adding a full traffic light in the heart of the town center. And they’ve been arguing about the issue for years.

Some say the stoplight – which would be only the third full traffic signal in town – is needed for safety reasons. But others contend it’s unnecessary and too expensive. And some residents fear a third stoplight would threaten the town’s very character. They say it could change Cape Elizabeth from a rural community to an urban one with problems like traffic backups.

According to some observers, the stoplight issue is controversial for a simple reason: Town residents are resistant to change. However, Penny Jordan, a town councilor who works the family farm on Wells Road where she grew up, disagrees. She says townspeople are willing to change – but only if that change is right for Cape Elizabeth.

“People love and value the town,” Jordan said. “They truly value the lifestyle that exists here … and they want to make sure they don’t change it lightly.”

For about 40 years, a blinking light has been in place at the intersection of Shore Road, Scott Dyer Road and Route 77/Ocean House Road. However, traffic has increased over time. So, at least since 1990, town residents have been studying and discussing adding a full stoplight at the intersection, according to Town Council Chairman James Rowe.

The Town Council wanted to continue taking time to study the intersection for most of this year, considering whether alternative measures, such as newly painted crosswalks and flags and signs, will work instead of a stoplight.

But now, Cape Elizabeth is under pressure from the state to stop talking and act – or lose nearly $400,000 in state and federal funding that the town secured five years ago for the project. As a result, the Town Council is finally poised to make a decision on the stoplight issue.

The council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 26, to decide on whether Cape Elizabeth should accept a grant from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee to help pay for full signalization at the intersection and also some improvements there, such as realigning some of the roads so they connect better. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

When the state was awarded the grant in 2004, the money would have paid for 85 percent of the project. But now the estimated total cost of the project is nearly $1.1 million, and Cape Elizabeth must now cover 66 percent of the cost. Its share has climbed to more than $700,000.

Town Manager Michael McGovern said in a recent memo to the council that the town has more than $540,000 available in town funds for the project. The money would come from a capital improvement bond approved in 2008 and from the town’s infrastructure improvement fund. However, the town would still need to find an additional $176,000 in town coffers to fully meet the local share of the project.

The expense of adding a stoplight is one reason that resident Fred Prince opposes it.

But he also believes it would alter the character of Cape Elizabeth. “You can’t have a rural community with a stoplight every 500 feet,” Prince said. “I want us to stay a rural town.”

Cape Elizabeth, an affluent coastal community with a population of about 9,000, has resisted much of the business and even some of the residential development that has characterized the neighboring communities of South Portland and Scarborough. It retains much of the bucolic feel of the farming community it once was.

In fact, the town only got its second full stoplight last year. That traffic signal – which is just a short distance away from the intersection where the new stoplight has been proposed – is located on Ocean House Road/Route 77 in front of Cape Elizabeth High School. McGovern said that light also generated controversy, but was required as part of the site plan approval for some renovations to the high school.

The town’s first full stoplight is also on Route 77, where it meets Spurwink Avenue, and was installed in the 1990s, McGovern said.

Police support the proposal to add a new full stoplight to the intersection at the town center because of concerns about pedestrians crossing there, said Cape Police Chief Neil Williams. “We just think that a traffic light with pedestrian crossing lights … would make the intersection more pedestrian-safe,” he said.

Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the intersection is sufficiently busy to meet state standards for installing a traffic light. “Traffic does get tied up,” he said. “It is hard to cross.”

McGovern said many people who drive through the intersection are traveling north or south on Ocean House Road/Route 77, so might not realize how difficult it can be for vehicles trying to get through the intersection from Shore and Scott Dyer roads.

However, some residents who use those side roads say vehicles are delayed only a short time. “I don’t think it’s necessary,” said Elizabeth Crane, regarding the full stoplight. “I come out of Scott Dyer and I never wait long.”

It’s not clear how the council will vote on the stoplight issue because members are divided on the matter.

Rowe said, “In the past, I have been fairly supportive of the issue and I think I’m still there.”

He said town-hired engineers did several studies of the intersection from the 1990s to as recently as about five years ago. The studies, Rowe said, “all indicated signalization was warranted.”

That’s why he believes the town should tackle the project now while the grant money is still available and the economic recession has made construction costs lower. “In the long term, if we’re willing to accept that something needs to be done, it’s not going to get cheaper,” Rowe said.

Also, if the town turns down the grant and cancels the traffic light project, it would still have pay about $25,000 – the local share of the money that the Maine Department of Transportation has spent on the project to date.

But Councilor Jordan says a traffic light is not necessary. She said safety is a concern, but believes alternative measures would make the intersection safe. For example, she suggests the town petition the state to lower the speed limit on Ocean House Road/Route 77 at the intersection to 25 mph from 35 mph.

Jordan worries a traffic light could lead to other problems, such as causing backups as parents pick their children up from the town schools located nearby. “I believe the light will create another set of challenges,” she said.

Rowe said he respects all points of view on the stoplight issue and is confident the town will figure out a way to resolve it.

“Cape Elizabeth is a good place to live if the worst issue we have is a traffic light in the town center,” he said.