FREEPORT — More than 180 townspeople have packed a Town Council public hearing tonight on Seacoast United Maine’s request for a zoning change near Hedgehog Mountain.

About 25 people have spoken so far, and all but four of them have said they oppose Seacoast’s request to create a wholly new “recreation district” so the soccer club can build an indoor athletic arena off Pownal Road.

A show of hands at the Freeport Community Center indicated that the vast majority of audience members oppose the request for a zoning change in a rural residential zone.

The Town Council decided last year to give Seacoast 12 acres of town-owned land in exchange for some use of indoor and outdoor fields at the proposed soccer complex.