Gorham planners and developer KV Enterprises Monday continued discussion of the first phase of the massive housing project proposed for a 131-acre site off Robie Street in the village. The project’s first phase received preliminary approval for 44 single-family homes in February and now awaits final approval.

No vote was taken Monday.

KV Enterprises engineering representative Owens McCullough of Sebago Technics told the Planning Board Monday he expects to receive a Department of Environmental Protection permit needed for Phase 1 in about two weeks. The board has asked for additional information about plans for useable open space.

Assistant Town Planner Damon Yakovleff clarified that the number of single-family homes proposed in Phase 1 would be 44 instead of 43, which the Planning Department had listed in the past. Homes in the first phase will be accessed by Bramblewood Lane in addition to Robie Street where the Village Elementary School is located.

The Planning Board is reviewing the first phase under existing zoning, Yakovleff said.

The overall project calls for 96 homes and 295 multifamily units in a designated high-growth area. For subsequent phases, the developer is seeking a contract zone from the Town Council to allow for a stepped up buildout.

Town Planner Carol Eyerman said Monday the entire development would be eligible for approval without a contract zone.

Neighbors have complained about heavy construction traffic on local roads into the development.

KV and the Planning Board are seeking an entrance into the development from the dead-end White Birch Lane, a short residential street from New Portland Road to a youth athletic field and parking lot behind Village School. While the extra entrance is not needed for Phase 1, it would spread out construction traffic from other entrances into the site. A White Birch Lane extension requires Town Council approval to cross town-owned property at the end of the lane.

The Town Council in a special meeting last month gave initial support for extending White Birch Lane, but approval now requires a public hearing and final council action. “We’re at the will of the council,” Vincent Maietta, a KV Enterprises partner with Kendrick Ballantyne, said Monday.

Resident Ruth Kelly of New Portland Road said in a letter June 13 to the Planning Board that an extension of White Birch Lane would require “cutting down numerous trees” and Kelly hoped the existing Toppan Drive could be weighed as an alternative entrance into the proposed development. “An easement for using Toppan Drive as an accessway to New Portland Road is on record at the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds and warrants further consideration,” Kelly wrote.

Kelly’s letter said the easement to  Toppan Drive was once utilized to transport harvested wood.

Maietta said use of Toppan Drive as a possible entrance had been discussed several times, but that a sales agreement the company has with the landowners is impacted by a parcel preserved by the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust on part of the property and the sellers are unwilling to change it.

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