The Westbrook City Council and administration are hoping a developer will commit to an age restriction on a project proposed as a retirement community.

Sandy River Health Systems, operators of Springbrook Nursing Home on Spring Street, has proposed a 114-unit development made up of condominiums the company said it would design and market to “empty-nesters” of baby-boomer age and older.

The city would like the company to limit sales of the condominiums to seniors, legally ensuring that at least one person of 55 years or older resides in 80 percent of the homes.

In recent weeks, after reviewing the final plans submitted by Sandy River to the Westbrook Planning Board, residents and city councilors questioned whether the company was shying away from a retirement-age-only community and moving to a development that could include younger residents, possibly even children. The company has said repeatedly that it is committed to building a retirement community.

“We’re not in the business of building housing for families,” Sandy River spokesman Daniel Maguire said at the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Jan. 17. “We’re in the business of building housing for seniors.”

However, Maguire said, Sandy River is reticent to place a legal age restriction on the sale of the homes and, thus, hinder its ability to sell to people younger than 55. He said that to make the so-called Stroudwater Landing project successful, the company may need the boomers who aren’t yet 55.

Councilors reiterated their support at the meeting for the construction of the retirement community, but expressed concern that Sandy River might be forced to sell to younger buyers if the market for empty-nesters dwindles during construction of the project, which the company said would take place in phases over five or six years.

City Councilor Drew Gattine said he believes Sandy River intends to build a retirement community, but he fears what would happen if the market changed five years from now, particularly if a new junior high school were built close to the development. The development would then be particularly attractive to families, agreed City Councilor Ed Symbol.

Councilors said they would not have supported an April 2006 zone change on the site from rural to residential growth if they thought it was possible families would be moving in. At the time, a major selling point for the development was that it would not burden the Westbrook schools or tax base but, instead, be a source of revenue for the city, said City Administrator Jerre Bryant at the meeting. Bryant also said the administration would not have supported the zone change.

Maguire said the company’s intention to build a retirement community has never wavered. Rather, Maguire said, Sandy River would like more flexibility to sell to younger people. This was particularly important, he said, because the city is requiring the company to construct a cut-through road between Stroudwater and Spring streets, as well as a sewer infrastructure, at great cost to the company.

“We really got boxed into a corner with this road,” Maguire said at the committee meeting.

Symbol countered that he would not have approved the zone change if the developer hadn’t agreed to build the road.

In the end, the council took no action at the meeting, instead preferring to bide its time while Sandy River continues to work with the Westbrook Planning Board on the project. Sandy River is still waiting for a site plan approval for the project from the planning board, which, seeking more information, tabled the item at its Jan. 2 meeting until a later date.

The city council has already approved the zone change, and it is unclear what action, if any, the council might take. One option presented Jan. 17 by the city’s attorney would be for the council to rezone the plot of land back to rural. It could then approve a contract zone to allow the development but under the condition that the company sell the homes to few or no families.