Waterford - If you build it, they will come - and they'll also need a place to park.

Discussion at the Friday morning meeting between Mago Point business and property owners and consultants charged with planning the point's redevelopment covered topics including the current volume of visitors to the point, potential future revenue streams and the need to create more space for parking on the property.

Mago Point is a section of waterfront land that runs from Route 156, or Rope Ferry Road, and juts out into the Niantic River. Since the bridge connecting Waterford to East Lyme was replaced in 1991, residents and owners of businesses on the point have complained that the small peninsula lies so hidden in the newer bridge's shadow that people don't even see it.

"We want Mago Point to be a destination," First Selectman Daniel Steward told the roughly 15 attendees at the beginning of the meeting.

The meeting was held at the Waterford Public Library. A workshop centered on similar topics for the general public is scheduled to be held at 9 a.m. today at Waterford Town Hall, with an estimated end time of noon.

In response to questions posed by Planimetrics President Glenn Chalder and BETA Group Inc. project manager Randall Collins, property owners said that many people visit the point in the summer, but that parking could be messy at times.

Planning, engineering and construction services firm BETA has been surveying the property in recent weeks, while consulting firm Planimetrics is slated to help the town start the process of rezoning the property. Director of Planning and Development Dennis Goderre said new zoning regulations would be proposed to the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2015.

Point resident Jane Wadsworth said the restaurant The Dock attracts a lot of business but that parking for the restaurant is limited.

Mago Point Business Association President Gary D. Smith, who owns a marina on the point, cautioned against focusing too much on parking and said efforts needed to be focused on how to best spur development and attract people to the point.

"If we don't have enough parking, we're kind of shooting ourselves in the foot," Chalder said, later adding that the consultants do not wish to create so much parking that there would be no space for development.

The consultants and business owners agreed that some creative solutions - such as expanding the availability of street parking - are possible.

Attendees emphasized that vacant buildings, such as the one that used to house the restaurant Unk's, should be marketed to private developers. They said they fear that vacant properties would deter visitors and new businesses.

Deb Hadaway and her husband, John Cabral, Mago Point property owners who both live in Glastonbury, suggested that town planning officials consider relaxing restrictions for the permits required for certain events, insofar as the permits pertain to the point.

Current regulations restrict permits for certain events to nonprofit and municipal organizations, according to Planner Mark Wujtewicz.

The Rope Ferry Road area has long been considered attractive to outsiders and was frequented as a vacation spot in the 19th century, Town Clerk and Municipal Historian Bob Nye said during a presentation at the meeting.

He said the point has faced struggles to develop in the past. Developer Titus and Bishop in the 1920s purchased property on the point, which it subdivided in hopes of spurring construction, Nye said. When the Great Depression hit, any hopes of development were upended until the Wadsworth family became involved in developing the point in the 1940s, he said.

It was when Titus and Bishop owned property on the point that the point got its name, according to Jane Wadsworth. The developers would say of the subdivided plots, "Well, it may go or it may not," she said.

t.townsend@theday.com

Twitter: @ConnecticuTess