WINDHAM–With more than 50 residents filling council chambers, the Windham Town Council on Tuesday night heard praise and criticism from those who would be impacted by a potential zone change in South Windham.

As a result of Windham’s most recent Comprehensive Master Plan (finalized in 2003), which among other things called for greater housing density in South Windham, town planners and the Land Use Ordinance Committee have proposed an extension of the residential zone east along Chute Road from South Windham.

According to Town Planner Brooks More, the zone change, if adopted, would help direct future growth into prescribed areas of town that are now zoned farmland. Changing the zone to Medium Residential would allow developers to build on smaller, half-acre lots, drastically altering

the landscape of the rural section of Windham, critics of the zone change say.

South Windham is already a mixture of several zones including industrial, commercial, residential and farm. With 75 percent of Windham already in a farm zone, which requires a minimum lot size of two acres, proponents of the zone change argue that the comprehensive plan’s goal was to limit urban sprawl to certain sections of town, and the area extending about a mile east from River Road on Chute Road was seen by plan architects as a possible growth sector.

But the residents who reside in the affected region bristled at the thought of the town permitting half-acre lots in their section of town at Tuesday night’s second public hearing on the matter. Several speakers said they moved to the Chute Road area of Windham to escape dense housing in neighboring towns and mid-Atlantic states, and that to encourage smaller lot sizes would bring more people, traffic and crime to the South Windham area.

“The village is the village, it probably needs revitalization. It probably needs restoration. But when you get on the other side of River Road onto Chute Road, the reason I moved there … was that I like the sacredness of what we have. This is sacred land. I would hate to see that spoiled,” said Matt Stover, who moved to Chute Road from Munjoy Hill in Portland.

Betty Lane resident Kim Green, who moved to South Windham to escape escalating development in New Jersey, also said the zone change would ruin the Chute Road area, just as it did in her once-rural section of New Jersey in the 1980s after a building moratorium was lifted.

“Windham is a wonderful township, the schools are wonderful. I’m proud to be a resident of Windham and the South Windham area, and you will destroy it, you will absolutely destroy it,” Green said. “This is our future, the open land.”

Others questioned why the town was moving ahead with such a controversial item, believing it would only benefit land developers, who are struggling with the economic downturn. It was a situation that Victoria Lane resident Steve Dion called the “$1 million question here.”

Will Plumley, a South Windham resident who served on the Comprehensive Plan committee, said the purpose of expanding the residential zone into the farm district is to direct growth into three designated growth areas: North Windham, Windham Center and South Windham, which is currently the smallest of the three.

“What’s in it for the town? The vision statement for the town of Windham is to retain and protect our rural character, scenic vistas, natural features and environment by maintaining a critical balance between preservation and development, through managing and directing growth,” Plumley said. “I love the fields and forests as much as anyone here. I see this as a strategy to preserve the fields and forests in Windham.”

Ann Alexander, a resident of South Windham Village, sees the zoning change as a chance to bring more people to South Windham to increase commerce and culture.

“It used to be a thriving community … there used to be more people living there in the past so it’s not like we’re going to take away the feel of the village by increasing density,” Alexander said. “If there are more people, maybe we could have a cafe? that could make it, maybe we could have a hardware store.”

Christine Tanguay, a resident of River Road, argued that more housing in the village would be fine, but the proposed zone change extends beyond the village into sections of town never intended to see dense housing.

“The part that you want to rezone was never part of the village … People do not walk that area, it’s dangerous to walk on River Road … If you increase the density, you’re going to have more traffic, and that’s a deadly intersection anyway,” Tanguay said, referring to the River and Chute roads intersection east of the village.

Also dominating discussion was who would benefit from the zoning change, which some residents suggested would be developers. A direct beneficiary of the zone change would be the developers of the Durant Homestead Subdivision, which lies within the affected area off Chute Road and which recently received Planning Board approval for 25 house lots. A zone change would allow the developers to build at least 50 homes on the site, a move that drew skepticism from several residents in attendance at the public hearing.

“I would like to speak with regard to the suspension of one group’s rights and coveted lifestyle in order to grant an expansion of rights to another group of people or enterprise,” said Patrick Corey, a resident of River Road. “When removing rights from one group of residents and placing new rights with others, greater concern should be given those residents whose rights will be removed.”

Gloria Lord, a Chute Road resident for 21 years, said, “The only benefit I see goes to the developers.”

Dave Fowler, a partner hoping to develop the Durant property who has served on a comprehensive planning committee in Casco, where he said growth is also an issue, said the Chute Road project is on hold due to the economy. He said the economy has forced the development team to downscale the project to either low-income or elderly housing, rather than the upscale homes that were planned when the team purchased the property in 2007.

“If I went single-family, you’d be looking at at least 50 homes there,” Fowler said. “But the other use with this density change is that it does offer an elderly housing. We would look at an elderly housing development … This does open up the opportunity for something like that. I think that is something that could help this entire region, because you’re talking medical services needed close by.”