BRUNSWICK

Bowdoin College wants to buy a former assisted-living home on Harpswell Road and convert it into student dormitory housing. But a zoning change is required to do it, and town officials worry about the effect it would have on the neighborhood.

Located at 52 Harpswell Road, directly across the street from Brunswick Variety and Deli, the rambling white building formerly known as Stevens Home was used as residential care housing for elderly residents for at least 35 years. Town records for the property’s use are incomplete prior to the 1970s, but staff members believe it had been used for similar purpose long before then.

Stevens Home closed in 2011.

Bowdoin signed a purchase-and-sale agreement in November. In December, its executive committee approved the purchase with hope of obtaining a zoning change no later than June 2013 to permit renovation.

On Feb. 4, town councilors voted 8-1 to send the request to the Planning Board.

Bowdoin plans to buy the building either way, according to Catherine Longley, the school’s senior vice president of Finance and Administration.

If the zoning request is delayed or denied, “we’ll decide what to do with it then,” Longley said.

The building’s current owner is Good Will Home Association, part of the same organization that operates the Good Will-Hinckley charter school and other programs.

Good Will-Hinckley was bequeathed the property by the will of the home’s founder. Glenn Cummings, Good Will-Hinckley’s president, said negotiations for its transfer took most of the past year.

The previous property owner — listed as Old Folks Home Association — had owned the property since the 1930s, according to town assessing records.

Several councilors expressed concerns that the college’s request is the latest example of how town zoning is outdated and rife with inconsistency.

Mixed-use zone

The building stands in a mixed-use zone, designated “MU3,” which contains only seven properties. Assisted-living facilities are a permitted use within the district, but an institutionally owned student dormitory is not.

Council Chairwoman Suzan Wilson noted the irony that, if a private citizen bought the property and either carved it into individual rooms or leased it to the college for the same purpose, it would be permitted.

A similar inconsistency affected the current municipal office building at 28 Federal St. Planning Board members and councilors last year had to rezone several blocks surrounding the town office building to allow for continued office use after the town vacates it in 2015 for its new home in Union Street’s McLellan Building.

District 7 Councilor Sarah Brayman worried about the symbolic boundary crossing by the school which, until now, has existed largely between Maine Street and Bath and Harpswell roads.

District 4 Councilor John Perreault logged the body’s lone opposing vote, saying he worried the town was showing favoritism to the college that might not be extended to a private citizen.

“If the average Joe decided to buy that property, would we consider changing the zoning if he asked us to?” Perreault wondered.

The Planning Board and the college will both hold public meetings so neighbors and property abutters can learn about and comment on Bowdoin’s plans.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com