BANGOR – About a dozen neighbors of St. Joseph Hospital turned out Tuesday to voice their concerns over the hospital’s growing presence in the once-residential area off Broadway.

With both testy and light moments, the informational session at the hospital’s St. Francis Center featured some pointed questions from neighbors looking for a preview of any expansion plans the 55-year-old hospital might have.

“We have no grand plans,” said a frustrated Sister Mary Norberta, St. Joseph’s chief executive officer. “We don’t want your houses. We don’t want you to move.”

The meeting was prompted by the hospital’s request last month to rezone nine properties – already owned by the hospital – from residential to institutional.

The City Council, in an unexpected move, voted to table the hospital’s request until Nov. 26, and asked the hospital to talk to worried neighbors about any future plans for the properties.

At Tuesday’s meeting, neighbors listened, but they also had plenty to say.

“I’m in the middle of the hospital,” said Penny Gray, who’s lived in her French Street home for 38 years.

With her home now bordered on two sides by the hospital, Gray – like several others in the shrinking neighborhood – said she felt as though she were being pushed out of the area and worried that should she ever decide to sell her property a buyer other than St. Joseph would be hard to come by.

Under the hospital’s plan, most of the rezoned properties, many of which are apartment buildings and two of which are vacant lots, would be used for administrative uses or parking. The only concrete expansion plan at this point, unrelated to the rezoning requests, is a small addition on the south end of the hospital’s old wing to house an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, center.

The future of the remaining residential properties is not clear under the city’s comprehensive plan, which targets the triangular area within Broadway, Center and Congress streets for institutional development such as that proposed by the hospital.

On Tuesday, residents asked for a review of the city’s concept for the area in an effort to protect the remaining homes.

Norberta said she would not oppose the neighbor’s efforts to modify the plan, but would not actively support them, citing the residents’ opposition to the hospital’s recent request.