SEARSPORT – A key component in the comprehensive plan will go before voters at the annual town meeting Saturday.

The town’s comprehensive plan was adopted in 2002 after more than five years of work by a volunteer committee. For the past two years, the committee has worked on the zoning portion of the document, including district maps, land uses and performance standards.

One of the issues that spurred debate at committee meetings in recent months was the plan’s requirements for the rural residential district, stipulating a 5-acre minimum lot size and a minimum 400-foot road frontage. Committee Chairwoman Phyllis Sommer said that some would rather see the minimum standards reduced to a 3-acre lot size and 200 feet of road frontage.

Rather than have the committee decide the matter, Sommer said, she and committee members wanted to put the question before residents at the annual town meeting.

Article 30 on the warrant calls for reducing the standards to 3 acres and 200 feet of road frontage. If the article is defeated, the standards will remain at 5 acres and 400 feet.

A vote at an earlier annual town meeting dictated that the completed zoning portion of the plan be considered only at an annual town meeting, when attendance is high, rather than a special town meeting. But Sommer and the committee want to have the plan considered at a special town meeting in June.

She explained Thursday that the committee still has work to do to complete the zoning portion, but that members do not want to see the town vulnerable to a large-scale development without regulatory oversight for the next 12 months.

Article 31, if approved, would rescind the 2003 annual town meeting vote that required the zoning to be considered at an annual town meeting. The article states that the June vote would be a one-time deviation.

Article 32, if approved, would schedule that special town meeting for June 11.

A competing item, Article 29, asks voters to rescind the current comprehensive plan adopted at a special town meeting on Oct. 22, 2002.

A group of residents calling themselves Supporters of the Comprehensive Plan have bought advertisements in some newspapers, urging voters to pass the articles proposed by the committee and to defeat the article that would rescind the plan approved in 2002.

Another article likely to generate discussion is one which, if approved, would reinstate the position of finance director and set the annual salary at up to $35,000. The position was eliminated a year ago when Town Manager Sandra Blake fired Lee-Ann Horowitz, who then held the position.

After Horowitz was terminated, Blake maintained that a full-time position was not necessary, and she took on some of the duties, with the help of a bookkeeper. In recent weeks, Blake agreed the position ought to be reinstated.

Blake resigned earlier this month but will stay on until a replacement is found.

In spending matters, voters will be asked to:

. Reduce the town manager account from $47,789 to $44,593.

. Spend $131,154 on administration, up from $120,000 in 2004.

. Increase spending for insurance and legal costs from $73,000 to $81,521.

. Increase spending for the Police Department from $153,393 to $171,433.

. Increase spending on the public works and highway departments from $258,180 to $274,098.

. Increase spending at Carver Memorial Library from $49,777 to $55,984.

. Increase the code enforcement officer pay from $6,008 to $11,465 to reflect the increase the work from one to two days per week.

Searsport’s annual town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 12, at the Searsport District Middle-High School gym off Mortland Road.