A joint development effort by Westbrook Housing and Westbrook-based Hi-Tek Builders may have a lasting effect on traffic along the river in the downtown.

In separate projects, Westbrook Housing is proposing a residential condominium building, while Hi-Tek Builders is proposing an office building. Both projects are in the conceptual stage while the developers seek approval by the city. The Westbrook City Council gave preliminary approval for the developers to submit their projects as one project at its meeting Monday night.

The projects would sit next to each other between Ash Street and the post office, and to accommodate them, the co-developers are proposing to build a side-street running from the post office parking lot to Ash Street. Opinions vary on whether the connector would make traffic better or worse in the downtown.

Carson Wood, who lives on Foster Street, said Monday he thought a connector to Ash Street would make traffic on his street worse. He said he moved into his home on Foster Street in 1994, when it was a narrow, dead-end street. He says he now has traffic on his street because drivers leaving the post office use his street as an access back to Main Street.

Wood said he thinks if a connector made it possible to get to Ash Street from the post office parking lot, drivers might consider leaving Main Street during periods of heavy traffic and going back streets west along the river all the way to Bridge Street. He said he was in favor of the development, just not the connector street.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said a traffic study performed in association with the proposed project indicated the connector would alleviate traffic to Foster Street.

Steve Noyes of Hi-Tek Builders said Monday that he thought the connector would be one-way heading west and would give drivers another option for leaving the post office parking lot instead of traveling east toward Foster Street.

Local real estate agent Andy Broaddus agreed the connector would help because of the difficulty in getting out of the post office parking lot as things stand now.

“You take your life in your hands,” he said. “This is a good solution.”

Bryant said if the city allowed the developers to build the connector, it would perform a second traffic study one year after the construction to see if traffic along side streets was affected negatively.

The city council will take a second and final vote on approving the joint project at its next scheduled meeting. If given approval, the developers would then begin the permit application process.