The owner of Enterprise Business Park, off Route 1 in Scarborough, is hoping that the addition of a significant amount of new multifamily housing will revitalize the development and finally fill up the remaining vacant lots.

David Miley, operating as Commercial Place, LLC, will take the first step toward winning town approval for a proposal of up to 240 residential units at the park when the Planning Board meets this week.

Neither Miley nor town planners could be reached before the Current’s print deadline, but in materials submitted to the Planning Board prior to its meeting Tuesday, Jason Vafiades, a senior civil engineer at Stantec, said that only a fraction of the lots at the Enterprise Business Park has been developed in the past 13 years.

The park, which is set on a little more than 80 acres, and which falls within the town’s Haigis Parkway Zone, was originally permitted for Class A office space. It contains two large daycare operators and the Maine Veterinary Medical Center, along with a variety of other businesses in both shared and stand-alone buildings.

The park already has an extensive sidewalk system, as well as a variety of walking trails that ramble through the undeveloped portion of the property.

In the application submitted to the Planning Board, Vafiades said that Miley has turned to the option of housing to revitalize his development due to the changing marketplace in southern Maine, which has seen an increased demand for new housing, particularly planned developments.

Miley is pursuing a process called Planned Use Development, which initially calls for him to provide the town with what’s called a Site Inventory & Analysis Phase package.

“After the protracted build-out of the approved (business park), coupled with recent development interest from a national residential real estate investment company, (Miley) wishes to explore the possibility of creating a PUD, which incorporates a residential component,” Vafiades said in the materials submitted to the Planning Board.

“The proposed PUD will meet the current market demands and could potentially expedite the development of the remaining commercial lots, as well as promote development within adjacent vacant lots,” Vafiades added.

In all, he said, the available lots in the Enterprise Business Park could generate as many as 220 to 240 residential units.

“The addition of these units would promote commercial growth and add some versatility to the town’s tax base while creating a space for new residents to live, work and recreate,” Vafiades said.

Miley’s plan to add a housing element to his business park is made possible through a zone change that the Town Council approved earlier this fall. The zoning amendment allows multifamily residential buildings of up to 12,500 square feet and a height of three stories.

At the Sept. 7 council meeting when the zoning amendment for the Haigis Parkway Zone was approved, Town Planner Dan Bacon said residential buildings of this size “work for both the industry and the town” and said such a building could house between 22 and 26 units each.

Bacon said that one of the reasons for the zone change is the interest of developers in creating new multifamily housing in Scarborough, as well as a desire to allow a mix of commercial and residential uses in more of the town’s zones.

The Haigis Parkway Zone includes the parkway, from Scottow Hill Road to Payne Road, and the Business Enterprise Park, according to Bacon. It’s adjacent to Scarborough Downs, which has its own zoning rules, he added.

In the materials Vafiades submitted to the town, he said that the proposed Planned Use Development would be well set back from Route 1 and the Haigis Parkway and would provide residents with seclusion, as well as “providing an environment that easily lends itself to trails, passive recreation and opportunities to create shared, outdoor living and recreational space.”

Miley first approached the town about allowing residential units in the Enterprise Business Park this past summer, but held off on making a formal application until the council passed the necessary zoning amendment.

The owner of the Business Enterprise Park in Scarborough is proposing a significant number of new housing units.

A sign advertising one of the many vacant lots available at the Business Enterprise Park in Scarborough.