The Westbrook landowner looking to create a destination development on Stroudwater Street brought his team of architects and their conceptual design to the Planning Board for the first time Tuesday, beginning the process of negotiating a contract zone with the city.

If he is successful, it would mark the third time Jason Snyder’s property is rezoned in the past 20 years. Though Snyder says he needs the zoning change in order to attract tenants, others say he’ll need to be more specific about his plans before the city can sign a contract with him.

Residents gave their first round of feedback Tuesday night, more than a month after Snyder came to the city with his proposal to build the 1.7-million-square-foot, high-end retail and recreational development that he said will create more than 4,000 jobs in Westbrook.

Snyder’s team includes his partner, Arthur Emil, a New York businessman, who owned Windows on the World, the restaurant that sat atop the World Trade Center, who was not at the meeting Tuesday. Architect Jane Thompson of Thompson Design Group of Boston, who was behind Boston’s Fanueil Hall, Washington D.C.’s Union Station and Chicago’s Navy Pier, was present for the workshop.

Though the site plan is still just conceptual, Snyder has already named Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom as possible retail tenants and Cheescake Factory and Legal Seafood as potential eateries. Snyder has said the number of cafes and restaurants in the development will differentiate it from other retail centers in the state, like the Maine Mall, Freeport or Kittery.

Snyder still has city and state permits to obtain and plans to solidify before the Planning Board can make a recommendation on the contract zone – an agreement between a landowner and the city on conditions or restrictions of a development – to the City Council. The council will conduct its own review and public hearing process to determine whether the vision Snyder’s father had when he bought the property 50 years ago will be realized.

Property history

Since Jason’s father, Arthur Snyder, purchased the property in 1959, the zoning has changed from industrial to mixed use to its current designation as business/professional/office. The zoning changes have occurred as a result of broader plans for the city, but Snyder believes location of his property, off exit 47 on I-95, is begging for the just kind of development he’s proposing.

Before the Westbrook Arterial was built, Snyder’s 60-acre property was lumped into an industrial zone along with the other properties south of Main Street. In 1989, it was rezoned mixed use to comply with a new comprehensive plan.

The new district was made, according to zoning ordinances, to “create an environment conducive to a higher quality of life for residents, businesses and employees in the City of Westbrook.” Uses allowed in the district included hotels, retail, restaurants and indoor recreational facilities, like theaters and bowling alleys.

As the City Council started the process of rezoning the entire city in 2003, Snyder’s property, along with others straddling Stroudwater Street, were put in the category of business/professional/office. Snyder’s neighbors argued that the city didn’t give enough notice to landowners and several residents ended up filing a lawsuit in April 2003, along with other Westbrook residents affected by the zoning changes. In May, the city halted those changes, and ended up reconsidering the zoning plan. The lawsuit was eventually dropped.

Though Snyder didn’t join in his neighbors’ lawsuit, he said during the rezoning discussions he let the city know he wasn’t pleased with the zoning, either. He wanted to keep the mixed use zoning that was already in place. In the end, Snyder’s neighbors’ properties were given the rural and residential designation, while Snyder’s land and one other parcel were rezoned to business professional office.

“I was the only one that was stuck with that business office classification,” he said last week. “The others got exactly what they wanted.”

Contract zone

One of Snyder’s neighbors who sued the city was Drew Gattine. Now a city councilor, Gattine first got involved in Westbrook politics during the zoning flap. Land use has continued to be an issue he takes seriously as a councilor

“I sort of reject the idea that I or any landowner should decide what their zoning is,” Gattine said last week, emphasizing that the lawsuit came about because of the flawed process, not the zoning changes.

In regard to Snyder’s development fitting into the zoning he had before 2004, Gattine said he believes the proposal is “far in excess” of what would have been allowed.

Gattine said he doesn’t think the location of his home will affect his position on the project as a city councilor trying to make the best decision for all Westbrook residents. In fact, Gattine said, he thinks the current business/professional/office zoning makes the most sense for the property. But, he said, a contract zone may be in the best interest of Stroudwater Street residents because, through a contract zone, the city would be able to put restrictions on the development, like preventing access from Stroudwater Street.

City Planner Molly Just already has made recommendations to Snyder’s plan as presented. In addition to prohibiting access from Stroudwater Street, Just suggested increasing open space, considering the addition of multi-family housing and not allowing drive-through restaurants or gas stations with food stores.

Snyder has inserted his own restrictions in his proposal. The application for a contract zone states that the development will be completed in phases, which would require that certain public amenities – like a farmer’s market, gathering spaces and a skating rink – must be built before the next phase of commercial development begins.

Still, Gattine said, more restrictions must be put in place in the contract zone in order to ensure that the actual development looks like the proposal that residents are getting excited about – “to make sure Mr. Snyder builds what he says he’s going to build.”

Gattine pointed out that there’s nothing in Snyder’s application that requires him to build a certain amount of retail or that it will be the high-end stores that he’s named.

“It could be what was on those pretty pictures he showed us, but it could be a lot of other things, too,” he said.

Gattine said he believes the city too often uses contract zones to fit projects rather than trying to attract projects to fit the city’s zoning – a practice that demeans the work done on the city’s zoning and its comprehensive plan.

“It’s not supposed to be easy to get a zone change,” said Gattine.

But unlike a zone change, which the city can make whenever it wants, a contract zone is permanent.

“It really means the city has to be a lot more careful,” he said, adding that whatever restrictions the city eventually comes up with “we have to be prepared to live with forever.”

Planning Board meeting

As residents stood up to speak Tuesday, they voiced concern similar to Gattine’s about the specificity of Snyder’s plans.

Eileen Shutts said the phases demarcated in the proposal didn’t represent enough of a “give and take” between allowed commercial development and the creation of public amenities.

In the application, Snyder would be allowed to build 400,000 square feet of commercial development in the first phase before having to construct a farmer’s market, 800,000 square feet of development in the second phase before having to add outdoor gathering spaces and 1.2 million square feet of development before building an indoor skating rink.

“Those numbers aren’t good enough,” Shutts said.

In addition, Shutts pointed out that, unlike Snyder’s team indicated, the development would not have been allowed in the mixed-use district the property was formerly zoned. She said it wouldn’t have met requirements for the size or density of development and amount of landscaping required.

Still, Shutts and others who spoke, said though they’d like to see more specifics, they understand that it’s a difficult balance between solidifying tenants and getting approvals from the city.

“Timing is everything in development,” said former Mayor Ken Lefebvre.

Though he called Snyder’s proposal a “tremendously exciting project,” he said, “there’s a laundry list of questions that need to be answered.”

Residents also emphasized the number of jobs the development would bring, its potential to be the city’s largest taxpayer and the fact that Snyder is covering all the costs.

“He’s asking for zero from the community. He’s asking for a contract zone,” said former City Councilor Ed Symbol.

However, according to Gattine, the contract zone would have to spell out the benefits the city needs to see in order to ensure that Snyder will “connect the dots” between his proposal and his project.

Just said another meeting on the project would be scheduled in coming weeks. She said the Planning Board would not be accepting public comments at the next meeting, but public hearings will be scheduled before board members make their recommendation to the City Council.