The Conway Planning Board is examining a proposal to create a “commercial core” zoning district that would curb the development of hotels and big-box stores in a portion of North Conway’s commercial corridor.

According to The Conway Daily Sun, the zone would allow motels and smaller retail businesses throughout the area, but restrict large-scale developments to a nearly mile-long section of White Mountain Highway already home to many big-box stores and the Settlers Green outlet mall.

The proposal comes as the town is still chipping away at efforts to update Conway’s outdated master plan before a moratorium on large-scale development ends in April 2025.

Part of the challenge, the Daily Sun reports, is drawing a line between what locals perceive as out-of-scale development pushed up close to the lot line, like the recently-built Viewpoint Hotel, and smaller structures that residents don’t object to as much.