Portland city planners have applied the brakes to a proposal to designate the India Street neighborhood a historic district after hearing last-minute concerns from a small group of property owners who wanted to weigh in.

Those residents met Monday with city planners to wrestle over what the proposal would mean for their properties, and whether historic status is something the neighborhood wants at all.

“We thought it’s important to slow down the process, meet with people,” said Deb Andrews, manager of the city’s historic preservation program, who called the meeting, the most recent in a yearlong process of neighborhood planning.

While other neighborhoods with a historic designation are more naturally cohesive, such as the West End, India Street is different, Andrews and others said.

Once the center of the city, home to immigrants and businesses, India Street has waxed and waned over the decades, with the Franklin Arterial severing its connection to the Old Port.

Vacant lots stand next to historic buildings, which stand next to new construction – a “Swiss cheese” layout of significant buildings that are not contiguous, many said.

“It is different than other historic neighborhoods,” Andrews said. “India Street has been a challenge because it has such a level of erosion over time.”

Chris Korzen, a Hampshire Street resident who is a member of the India Street Neighborhood Association, said he gathered a more than a dozen signatures of property owners who felt they were not given time to discuss the historic designation with city planners before the issue went to a vote by the city’s Historic Preservation Board.

“Homes that are subject to one set of reviews stand next to homes that will be subject to another set of reviews,” Korzen said.

Portland planners began taking a hard look at the hodge-podge area of India Street in March, and in the intervening months, held a dozen meetings to come up with a neighborhood plan that looks at the neighborhood’s history, context and future.

Part of that neighborhood plan contemplates historic status, which would confer special levels of protection on buildings considered valuable. Buildings with landmark status must remain almost unchanged. Other structures deemed contributory to the neighborhood’s fabric and character would be held to a less stringent standard, so that if owners sought to change aspects of their appearance or styling, the city staff or the historic preservation board would have to give approval first – a point that irked some in the audience.

Others vowed to show up at future meetings to continue to be heard.

On July 22, the Historic Preservation Board will meet to discuss an alternative to historic preservation status.

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