Stonington — Property owners and town officials urged the Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night to approve its own application to create a new Heritage Mill Zoning District for three manufacturing properties on Mechanic Street and change the zoning of 11 others on Mechanic and Prospect streets to downtown business.

The mill district is designed to spur investment in the properties by allowing a wide variety of commercial uses, streamline the permitting process by allowing planning staff to approve some uses without commission review and loosen bulk requirements.

Al Furtado, who opened Crossfit Stonington in the Harris complex in 2013, spoke in favor of the plan, saying that when he opened he had to go through an arduous, costly and time-consuming process to get approval.

Selectman Mike Spellman commended the PZC and Economic Development Commission for taking proactive measures to help with the economic recovery of Pawcatuck.

“We need this in Pawcatuck. We want to come back and be part of a vibrant Stonington,” he said, adding that the new uses would help make the area attractive to millennials who want to move to walkable communities.

“I can’t tell you how much it pains me to see Pawcatuck not meet its full potential,” said Lisa Konicki, a Pawcatuck resident who is the president of the Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce.

She said the chamber promotes downtown Pawcatuck with everything from new signs and flowerboxes to staging events such as the Pawcatuck River Duck Race and Riverglow, but the area still needs something major to spur investment.

She called the zoning proposal a “quantum leap for positive economic development in downtown Pawcatuck.”

“There’s no reason downtown Pawcatuck can’t be as vibrant as Stonington borough and Mystic,” she told the commission.

After listening to the comments on Tuesday night, the commissioners continued the public hearing to their next meeting but did not vote on the proposal because members want to review the list of uses that planning staff can approve on their own and possibly require some of them to have commission approval.

Director of Planning Jason Vincent admitted to the commission that he was “pushing the envelope” a bit when it comes to what staff can approve. He said it’s done in other communities but that it’s up to the commission to decide.

“I think it’s being pushed a little far,” said commission member Lynn Conway.

The three properties that would be rezoned to the Heritage Mill District are the vacant Yardney mill complex at 82 Mechanic St., the former Harris complex at 100 Mechanic St., which has 76 percent occupancy, and an undeveloped property at 150 Mechanic St. The proposed change not only reflects a recommendation in the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development but the effort of the town’s Economic Development Commission over the past several years to allow more uses, such as microbreweries, thereby attracting investment in the properties.

Uses in the Heritage Mill District that would only require a zoning permit issued by town planning staff include professional, medical or corporate offices; assembly, fabrication and compounding; research and development; processing of agricultural products; municipal facilities, public utilities and health clubs.

Others include medical clinics, retail and wholesale sales, personal services, storage facilities, light and advanced manufacturing, financial institutions, microbreweries and brew pubs, family entertainment centers or similar indoor commercial, recreation or entertainment operations.

Uses that would require a special use permit from the commission and pubic hearing include restaurants (no drive-thrus), hotels or motels, schools, day care centers, hospitals and clinics, agricultural and aquaculture activities, boat sales, exterior bulk storage and use of any portion of the property for residential use, as well as elderly housing, congregate living facilities and convalescent homes.

The commission could also establish setback and landscaping requirements to buffer adjacent residential properties from the new uses.

Vincent pointed out to the commission that if it eventually approves the proposed PV-5 zone for DB-5 properties downtown Pawcatuck to spur development there, the 11 properties proposed to be rezoned as DB-5 could become PV-5, allowing even more uses.

j.wojtas@theday.com