AUGUSTA — Proposals to build a new 13-pump gas station with a convenience store and drive-through Dunkin’ Donuts on Riverside Drive are among the issues going to the Planning Board on Tuesday.

The board also will consider whether to change the zoning of a side street off Western Avenue that straddles commercial and residential areas to allow offices, a barber shop and specialty retail shops there; and allowing the conversion of a vacant gas station just off Interstate 95 on Civic Center Drive into a mattress store.

Point Lookout Partners has proposed the city rezone 10 and 12 Pike Street from the Medium Density Residential District to the Local Business District Contract Zone and include barber or beauty shops, specialty retail, professional offices, and one- and multiple-family dwellings as allowed uses there.

Pike Street comes off Western Avenue, just below TD Banknorth, connecting to Green Street on the opposite end. Western Avenue is highly commercial, while the area just off the avenue is highly residential. The area where the applicant proposes to change the zoning on Pike Street is essentially on the boundary between those two uses.

The city’s 2007 Comprehensive Plan describes the area as “a mix of neighborhoods and commercial corridors, with clear lines separating the two. The protection of neighborhoods from further encroachment of businesses is important. Commercial corridors such as Western Avenue are important places of commerce. These corridors should be limited in depth generally to one or two lots back from the main corridors.”

The property at 10 Pike St. is three lots back from Western Avenue, while 12 Pike is four lots back.

Matt Nazar, acting development director, said in a memo to planners, “It could be argued that the proposal is not consistent with the 2007 Comprehensive Plan, or the opposite, that the proposal is consistent with the 2007 Comprehensive Plan.”

Point Lookout Partners, in its application to change the zone, notes the buildings have been used previously as a call center and office space and have stood vacant and unused for years.

Another proposal going before the board Tuesday is from C.N. Brown to build a 3,850-square-foot convenience store with 10 gasoline and three diesel fueling stations with a drive-through Dunkin’ Donuts and a 400-square-foot fuel delivery office. The new gas station and store would be at 362 Riverside Drive, replacing C.N. Brown’s existing 7,500-square-foot commercial building and 1,200-square-foot storage building. Both buildings would be removed.

In order to get a traffic movement permit from the state Department of Transportation, C.N. Brown would have to put in two 270-foot-long left turn lanes with median islands on Riverside Drive, according to application materials filed with the city.

Planners are scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at Augusta City Center. They are also scheduled to:

* Elect a chairman, vice chairman and secretary;

* Consider a proposal from United Growth Capital Management to build a 6,000-square-foot retail mattress store at 210 Civic Center Drive, just off Interstate 95 at the 1.17-acre site of a vacant gas station and store;

* Hold public hearings and consider proposals to renew mineral extraction licenses for Harold Warren Construction on West River Road and Sanford Road, and for John S. Mulholland on Bond Brook Road; and

* Review the proposed color and materials for the new consolidated courthouse planned for Winthrop and Court streets, which will be attached to the existing Kennebec County Courthouse.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com