WESTBROOK – City officials have decided against pursuing a grant to revamp a 30-year-old downtown common, and it’s not clear when – or if – the project will be taken up again.

“We have not given up on possible development of (the area),” said Keith Luke, the city’s director of community and economic development.

On June 24, the Westbrook Environmental Improvement Corp. (WEIC) voted not to pursue the application for a $140,000 state grant to revamp a walking mall connecting Main Street and William Clarke Drive, known as Westbrook Commons, according to Luke.

The Maine Department of Community and Economic Development grant, if approved, would have been a “one-to-one” grant, meaning the city would have to come up with $140,000 of its own to match it.

On June 20, the City Council voted 4-1 to allow Luke to apply for the grant, but even then, Luke said he would not apply until he was sure he could get matching funds for it from the WEIC.

Luke described the environmental corporation as a “quasi-municipal entity” that is tasked primarily with managing tax increment financing (TIF) districts, which funnel property taxes raised in certain areas back into the development of that area.

City Councilor John O’Hara, who is also a WEIC member, said this week that the group’s responsibility has grown in recent years to include financing for some economic development costs outside TIF districts. As a result, he said, the group likely would not be able to afford the needed matching funds.

“We have greater needs elsewhere,” he said.

The commons is nicknamed “Blue Note Park,” a reference to the crooner Rudy Vallee, a Westbrook native,, and the large blue symbols that adorn the park. A product of the urban renewal movement of the 1970s, the commons was supposed to attract visitors to the area, and to the businesses lining two commercial buildings on either side of it, promoting a “walking downtown” area with boutique local shopping and coffee bars.

Instead, the commons has fallen into disrepair and neglect, with uneven concrete surfaces, graffiti in some spots, and a nonfunctional fountain mechanism. Businesses in the area include a law firm, a credit union, and a physical therapist’s office.

According to the detailed proposal, revamping the space would include removing some of the trees, pulling up uneven concrete slabs, then installing new concrete slabs, putting in new areas of crushed stone, planting trees, and installing lighting, benches and assorted planters. In addition, the plan includes building two pergolas, and also calls for two new concrete pads to accommodate sculptures to be installed in the future.

Luke said he and City Planner Molly Just suggested applying for the grant because it was geared toward projects like the commons.

“It was written specifically to address the upgrading of downtowns,” he said.

Luke said there is a chance the city could apply for a Community Development Block Grant sometime this fall. Those grants require matching city fund as well, Luke said, but the match could be as small as 20 percent.

O’Hara said he was not sure whether he would support using any amount of city funds to rebuild the commons. In these economic times, he said, it’s more pressing to make sure streets are paved and other municipal needs are met.

“Only in the best of times should we be looking at revamping the Westbrook Commons area,” he said.