DERRY - The Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing on the proposed zoning changes to the general commercial district along Rockingham Road in the Webster's Corner section of town for its Wednesday, April 17, meeting.

Last year, the Planning Board held several workshop meetings on a proposed change to an office/medical/business zone for the current general commercial zone in anticipation of public water and sewer coming to the area.

Planning and town officials undertook the proposed changes as a way to enhance the development of the district.

That change in the zoning designation was scrapped, however, when many of the property owners objected to the proposed exclusion of gas stations and automobile sales and service businesses in the district.

In an effort to take the property owners' concerns into account, the board looked at keeping the area zoned general commercial but establishing a 1,000-foot buffer zone for service stations and automobile sales businesses.

Many residents and property owners in the district have still objected to the change and the buffer zone, stating it would limit how they could develop and devalue their properties.