Residents in Cape Elizabeth remain steadfast in their opposition to the potential development of 41?2 acres next to the Town Hall.

The No. 1 reason, they say, is their desire to keep Cape rural.

“Developing the town is way down on the list,” resident Paul Seidman, who has spoken out at previous Planning Board and council meetings, told the Current this week. “Our tax dollars are wasted, paying for hundreds of hours working on plan after plan (which) we have said so clearly we don’t want pursued.”

The privately owned property, located at 326 Ocean House Road, could eventually include four retail/commercial buildings and a 1-acre village green. According to Town Planner Maureen O’Meara, the previous owner of the property, Peter Haffenreffer, who presented his concept plan to the town in February 2014, is selling the land to Harry Angevine, CEO of Marathon Construction Inc. in Providence, R.I. Angevine was scheduled attend a Planning Board workshop Tuesday, after the Current’s deadline, to present his proposal.

“He likes the concept plan that Mr. Haffenreffer came up with,” said O’Meara. “That’s what he’s bringing forward (to the Planning Board).”

The proposal includes one single-story building, three, two-story mixed-use buildings, and a 1-acre village green with frontage on Route 77. Creating a village green, which would be deeded to the town, is one of several recommendations in the 1993 Town Center Plan that was last updated in 2014.

According to O’Meara, the village green concept has been discussed since 1993. The Town Center Plan indicates the property adjacent to Town Hall can be developed without a village green, but at the same time, “the green adds to the desirability of the potential development and advances town goals.”

The Planning Board was also set to discuss Tuesday a recommendation by the Town Council in May to amend the front setback requirement in the Town Center District to accommodate a village green.

According to O’Meara, the Planning Board could either add the amendment to the Sept. 1 workshop for more revision, or to the Aug. 18 meeting, at which time the board could hold a public hearing or schedule a hearing for September.

“The current zoning promotes development that is like a village, where there are sidewalks, and where the buildings are relatively close to the sidewalk,” O’Meara said.

In a memo to the Town Council on May 4, Councilor Patty Grennon said if a property owner wants to create a village green in front of their structures, they currently wouldn’t meet the town’s 25- to 35-foot setback requirement from the road.

“While the current minimum/maximum building setback promotes a pedestrian-friendly town center, it also prohibits the village green concept development (being) proposed,” she said.

“We don’t want a village green behind the building. We want a village green right up next to the road, where the public can see it and enjoy it,” O’Meara said. “It provides visual identity for the town center.”

The Town Council is recommending that the Planning Board have the flexibility to “increase the maximum front yard setback when the new construction includes the creation a village green and the proposed new construction will serve to frame the village green,” according to the proposed amendment.

In 2013, the Town Center Plan Committee circulated a questionnaire about the Town Center Plan and collected comment from 82 residents, many of whom said that they would like to retain a rural town center.

At the same time, O’Meara said, “there was 2-1 support for a village green. What there isn’t support for is development in Cape Elizabeth.”

“We have not stood in the way of private, law-abiding development. C-Salt went up not so long ago without public opposition,” added Seidman. “What we oppose is the town planner unrelentingly pushing for law changes that violate the clear preferences of the majority of citizens, such as protecting natural environments and ecosystems that are the bedrock of our uniquely rural character.”