Permanently protecting the city-owned lot on the corner of Westbrook and Main streets on the western end of South Portland to prevent any future commercial development has received an initial thumbs-up from the City Council.

In a workshop held last week the majority of councilors were in favor of keeping the lot undeveloped, whether that means formally adopting it as a city park or merely approving a conservation easement that would be held by the South Portland Land Trust.

The property has been the subject of controversy in recent years as the owners of the Dunkin’ Donuts on that end of Main Street sought to build a new 24-hour store, which did not have the support of residents or the neighboring Congregation Bet Ha’am synagogue.

In addition, a proposal by Planning and Development Director Tex Haeuser to rezone the lot, as well as other parcels in Thornton Heights, to allow for more auto-oriented commercial development was rejected by the council last summer and since then the lot has continued to be bisected by the Residential A and Limited Business zones.

Prior to the November election, several members of the City Council, including Tom Blake and Patti Smith, were in favor of keeping the city-owned lot as open space and not selling it to Dunkin’ Donuts for redevelopment, as had been proposed.

Now, according to City Manager Jim Gailey, the city has not “had any discussions with Dunkin’ Donuts for some time and city staff feels that proposal is dead,” which is why Gailey sought council input on what should happen to the city-owned lot going forward.

Prior to the Feb. 24 council workshop, Gailey said the “City Council has requested an opportunity to discuss the future of the city-owned parcel,” although there is no particular proposal on the table.

During the meeting, Gailey told the council that the Congregation Bet Ha’am has both a landscaping and parking easement on a portion of the corner lot, as well as a right of first refusal to buy the property, which is in effect until December.

The parcel is known as the former Sawyer School playground and although there used to be ballfields and a skating rink on the property, it has not been used for any formal recreation for many years.

At last week’s workshop, Kate Lewis, vice president of the South Portland Land Trust, said it’s the position of her group that the city-owned land should be “permanently protected going forward.”

She said the land trust would be happy to hold a conservation easement or to assist the city into turning the parcel into a more formal park, as long as the ultimate goal is to keep the property as open space and not allow future development.

Several neighbors spoke in favor of keeping the corner lot as open space during the Feb. 24 workshop with most of them arguing it was not the right place for a high-traffic business, such as Dunkin’ Donuts.

Lisa Munderback, president of the board at the synagogue, said the congregation would support a conservation easement and would be willing to put some money toward maintaining the undeveloped lot.

Councilor Blake said for him the time is right to “take definitive action” on the future of the city-owned corner lot and argued “there’s value in keeping this as open space.”

Gailey mentioned that the city could use the property as a “lay down yard” for the continuing sewer separation project in Thornton Heights, which would mean the council could use money from that project to “enhance” the lot, once the construction is completed.

“We could work with the contractor to do grading, seeding or even cutting a path,” Gailey said.

This idea also found some favor with councilors, although Gailey also warned this could be “an ugly corner for a year or two” if the parcel is used as a construction staging area.