Cape Elizabeth residents worried about a proposed 42-unit subdivision have launched a petition drive to prevent the building of roads that would create “shortcut” streets through existing neighborhoods.

The proposed Spurwink Woods subdivision in the north section of town prompted the creation of the new resident group sponsoring the petition drive, Neighborhoods for Sensible Development.

Spurwink Woods would create a shortcut between two major roads, Spurwink Avenue and Mitchell Road, by linking two existing dead-end-road neighborhoods. Residents worry that traffic would increase on the area’s quiet streets.

The petition urges a change to the town’s zoning ordinance to prevent connections between major roads that create shortcuts through existing neighborhoods, but would allow for other connections “that enhance the traffic network, encourage efficient delivery of public services and permit the temporary diversion of through-traffic over local roads during public safety emergencies,” according to a statement from the group.

Richard Bryant, a Spurwink Avenue resident and lawyer, drafted the proposed change. He said the Spurwink Woods development would significantly increase cut-through traffic between the Columbus/Killdeer/Thrasher Road neighborhood and the Stephenson/Hamlin/South Street neighborhood.

Jim McFarlane, a local real estate broker and one of three developers behind Spurwink Woods, said the formal application for the subdivision would be submitted to the Planning Board Friday. The application will include a traffic study with projections about cut-through traffic.

Bryant is not opposed to connecting existing neighborhoods with local roads to increase cohesion between those neighborhoods, decrease traffic on major arteries and create better access for emergency and public works vehicles. What Bryant and the other residents taking part in the petition drive have a problem with is when new connections create shortcuts that hurt existing neighborhoods.

“Having unlimited connections between developments is just as shortsighted as having dead-end developments,” Bryant said.

He said the issue of cut-through traffic would be faced by every neighborhood in town as pressure to develop the open spaces between the major roads increases. Bryant said the amended ordinance would not limit development, but would require developers to come up with innovative ways to create new neighborhoods without creating shortcuts, whether by using looped roads or creating long, winding neighborhood streets.

According to the town charter the group must collect 767 signatures – 10 percent of registered voters – to move the question to the Town Council, which must then hold a public hearing and either adopt the change or schedule a referendum vote. Town Manager Mike McGovern said he would not comment on the petition process until he had been advised by the town’s attorney, because there are state laws also addressing local petition efforts.

Town Planner Maureen O’Meara said the ordinance change would be a “step backward.” She said connectivity is a “very fundamental idea” behind the planning process and development within the town.

“All current planning thinking supports the promotion of connectivity,” O’Meara said. “This (petition drive) is moving in the wrong direction.”

O’Meara said she understands the concern of residents that the shortcut between Spurwink Avenue and Mitchell Road would create a large amount of through traffic, but said very effective techniques are available to the Planning Board when designing a road, to discourage cut-through traffic. She said there is a difference between designing a local road versus designing a “connector” or “arterial” road.

“We will design this to be a local road,” she said. Local roads tend to be narrow, and have more curves and hills to force drivers to slow down. “Even if the distance is shorter, the perception is it is not a short cut,” O’Meara said.

Bryant disagreed. “That road would never be treated as a local road,” he said. The distance saved by motorists using the potential road would be a mile, according to his calculations.

“And no amount of traffic calming measures will stop a driver from saving a mile,” he said.

O’Meara said the change, if passed, would put pressure on two other more important ordinances already in place – those preventing the construction of roads on critical wetlands and preventing dead-end roads from serving more than 20 homes or being longer than 2,000 feet in length. Those existing regulations reflect environmental and public safety concerns.

“You can’t regulate a property to such an extent that you have basically taken all value from the property,” O’Meara said. She doesn’t think preventing the hook-up of local roads is a strong enough concern to add a further limitation to development in the town, “especially when we have techniques to deal with cut-through roads.”

McFarlane, one of the developers of Spurwink Woods, along with Skip Murray of L.P. Murray and Sons and Craig Cooper of Rainbow Construction, said he wouldn’t comment on the petition drive except to say that he and his partners had worked with the town to design a project that would follow town ordinances and regulations.

“Now someone wants to change them,” McFarlane said. “So we’ll see how that goes.”