AUGUSTA — A food distributor is seeking a city zoning change so it can build a parking lot on adjacent property to free up space to expand its Augusta operation.

Officials at Performance Foodservice — Northcenter say building the proposed new parking lot with spaces for more than 110 trucks and other vehicles to park just north of the food distribution firm’s Dalton Road building would allow the business to build a new 50,000-square-foot freezer where many of its parking spaces are now. The operation is between the Kennebec River and Riverside Drive.

In application materials filed with the city, the company says the Augusta subsidiary of Performance Foodservice is growing but doesn’t have enough space now at its 140,000-square-foot building to accommodate additional growth.

Company officials did not respond to phone calls or an email seeking comment Monday.

“We are proud of our growth and wish to continue to grow; however, our present space does not allow for that as we have maxed out the present facility,” according to the company’s application to the city filed by Tim Holt, senior vice president of operations. “This … rezoning will allow us to move our parking to the new land and allow for an additional 50,000-square-foot freezer. Giving us the option of continuing our growth and increasing our employment of local residents.”

But a parking lot is not an allowed use in the zone where the land is located. Northcenter would purchase one part of the parcel from an Augusta couple and lease the rest from Central Maine Power.

Up until about a year ago when the city rezoned that area as part of a larger change, the land changed from Planned Development to the somewhat more restrictive Planned Development 2 zone, which does not allow parking lots.

In a proposal going to the Augusta Planning Board Tuesday night, the company will ask the city to agree to a contract zone, leaving the site within the larger Planned Development 2 area but with an agreement it could be used for parking services. Planners meet to consider the proposed zone change Tuesday at 7 p.m. in council chambers at Augusta City Center.

“There was a zone change about a year ago … that eliminated that use there,” Matt Nazar, development director for the city, said of parking at the site.

The proposed parking lot property is between a Sherwood Drive residential neighborhood and the Kennebec River. The property is currently accessed from Sherwood Drive but, if the plan is approved, would be accessed from a driveway which would be built from Northcenter’s existing parking lot to the new lot. The site is currently a gravel pit.

The company’s application says the parking lot would be some 60 feet below Sherwood Drive, is buffered by forest, and would be more than 300 feet from the closest residence.

Cives Steel abuts the Northcenter property to the south. Both businesses are reached via Lipman Road.

Northcenter has 358 employees working as drivers, warehouse workers and sales and office staff in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Of those, 193 work at the Augusta site with around 50 of them working at night, according to company officials.

The company began in 1963 as a division of Joseph Kirschner and by 1970 had five employees. It moved to its Dalton Road site in 1975 with a 12,000-square-foot building. It expanded there in 1984, 1988, 1995 and, in 2000, reached its present 140,000-square-foot building size.

In 1999 Northcenter Foodservice merged with Performance Food Group, of Richmond, Virginia. In 2008 that company merged with Roma foods, becoming Performance Foodservice.

Nazar said the city has not received any application materials for the company’s longer-term plans to expand its building after the parking lot is built.

“I believe they’re looking at the zone change and building the parking lot first and making that work for them,” Nazar said. “Then I’d anticipate we’ll see an application from them for an expansion on the north end of the building in the relative near future.”

Planners on Tuesday are also scheduled to consider a proposal to add social services as a conditional use in the Planned Development 2 zone. Conditional uses require planning board review.

The city’s ordinances define social services as “Establishments primarily engaged in providing nonresidential individual and family social assistance services to advance the welfare of citizens in need. A social service may include the following accessory uses: office, medical office, or clinic uses; vocational or trade training; supporting personal services; or a food and goods distribution facility.”

Nazar said the proposal before the board would exclude offender rehabilitation, offender self-help agencies and probation and parole offices.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj