BANGOR – The final adoption next week of the Penjajawoc Marsh overlay zone is the final step in a series of measures the city has taken to protect the ecologically sensitive Penjajawoc watershed from encroaching development.

The adoption, which will involve adding the district to the city’s official zoning map, is slated to go before the Bangor City Council during its next regular meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Although efforts to protect the marsh and stream have been in the works for more than a year, it remains a source of confusion among some of the affected landowners.

That became apparent during a public hearing conducted by the planning board on Tuesday night, when several city property owners turned up to ask questions about how the district would affect their property. As it turned out, most concerns were unfounded because it affects only large landowners.

Some said they were surprised to learn their land was in the district, which encompasses more than 400 parcels and about 1,870 acres of land bounded by Stillwater Avenue, Kittredge Road, Essex Street and Interstate 95. Not included are the four lots closest to or within the watershed because those lots likely are not developable.

George Parke, who owns a home on Fox Hollow Lane, said he first learned his property would be part of the district 10 days earlier, when he received a written notice about the planning board hearing. He said he had followed the Penjajawoc issue but had been out-of-state for the winter.

“Is there any way to get your property exempted from this?” Parke asked.

City Engineer Jim Ring said Parke could petition for an exemption but that receiving one was unlikely because he would have to show his land’s being in the district was inconsistent with the city’s comprehensive plan, which now includes the marsh protection measures.

Another Fox Hollow resident wanted to know if she could still add a tennis court to her family’s 6.5 acres, or if “we’re paying taxes on land we can’t do anything with.”

Other questions had to do with whether the overlay zone would mean new restrictions on land use or special fees or taxes to support it.

In most cases, the answer was no, but with one exception:

“If you have a 50-acre lot and plan to [subdivide] and develop it, it affects you greatly,” Planning Officer David Gould said in response to a property owner’s question. That is because the district encourages the use of cluster subdivisions, which are designed to provide more open space by allowing houses to be built upon smaller, closer lots.

With regard to concerns about decreased land value, Shep Harris, chairman of the Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall management commission and a representative of the Bangor Land Trust, said, “We spent many, many hours to make sure people’s property would not be devalued.”

Among other things, the zoning amendments that created the overlay district prohibit development within 175 feet of the resource protection zone surrounding the marsh, and limit impervious surface for developments within 250 feet of the marsh’s upland edge.

Residential construction near the marsh would be limited to cluster subdivisions, which allow houses to be built closer together, on smaller lots, as a way to preserve more open space than otherwise would be required.

With regard to land further away from the marsh, the city now allows cluster subdivisions to be used on low-density residential as well as rural residential district districts.

Many of the measures the city is adopting to protect the marsh are the product of a 15-member Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall management commission, which has been meeting since November.

The panel is composed of essentially the same people who served on the Penjajawoc-Bangor Mall Area Stakeholders Task Force, a panel with representatives from five interest groups, namely landowners, land trusts, environmental groups, city officials and commercial developers.

Bringing the affected parties together was the city’s approach to resolving what was becoming an increasingly bitter battle between environmental and economic concerns. The controversy was touched off by plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Penjajawoc watershed, a plan that was rejected four years ago by the state Board of Environmental Protection.

The commission was established by the City Council on the recommendation of the task force, which worked more than 50 hours last year and the year before to come up with a balanced approach to development near the Penjajawoc watershed.