PITTSFIELD – The Town Council’s ordinance committee has proposed six changes to the town’s zoning ordinances that will be reviewed Monday by the local planning board.

Review of the ordinances has been under way for the past two years, with many changes being simple refinements of definitions or language. Others are changes that could deeply affect the way the town looks and develops.

One proposed change would shift the designation of land from the Waverly Dam on the West Branch of the Sebasticook River to the Palmyra town line. The section of the river leads to Douglas Pond, a wildlife sanctuary.

The land is designated resource protection, and only limited residential development is allowed.

The proposal would shift the land to limited commercial, which would allow recreational and light mixed commercial uses, according to Code Enforcement Officer Claude Rounds.

This change would require amending the town’s zoning map and would need approval by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Rounds would not comment on how each of the changes reflects the town’s comprehensive plan.

“I’d prefer to wait until the meeting and hear the discussion,” he said. Rounds said each of the six proposals could be either referred to a public hearing or sent back to the ordinance committee for changes.

The other six revisions would allow for greater business development, regulate size and scope of signs, and refine several definitions.

One proposal would establish a business expansion zone, which would extend the downtown development area south on Route 100, west on the Webb Road to the Crawford Road and across the Crawford Road to Somerset Avenue.

This area is bisected by Interstate 95 and consists of several manufacturing businesses as well as a significant amount of farmland and residential homes.

Ordinance committee Chairman Michael Gray was out of town and unavailable for comment on the proposals.

In other business, the planning board will review:

. A request from Sebasticook Valley Hospital to move its sleep study unit from the hospital into a building

on Leighton Street, which

was formerly a nursing

home and is now a day care center.

. A request from Hancock Lumber on Merrimac Street to construct a major addition that will house two kiln dryers, a control room, an addition to the existing boiler room, and an addition to the planer mill.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, in the council chambers of the municipal building.