NEW GLOUCESTER — The Planning Board will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday on a proposal for a seasonal retreat center at 288 Tobey Road.

The board plans to visit the site at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 14.

The April 19 hearing will be held at the Meeting House in Lower Gloucester.

The proposal is from the Machiah Center, a tax-exempt, nonprofit program of the JSL Foundation, whose purpose is to provide rest, reflection and fellowship to small groups of activists and scholars who are trying to make the world a better place.

The foundation is located in Falmouth. Jonathan Lee is its president, secretary and treasurer; his mother Nancy Margolis of Falmouth and New York City, his sisters Catherine Lee of North Yarmouth and Beth Lee of New York City, his brother Adam Lee of Cumberland, and his nephew Jason Moyer-Lee of North Yarmouth, are all board members.

The center would be developed in phases, according to information sent to town planner Paul First from Wiebke N. Theodore of Theodore and Theodore Architects of Arrowsic. The first phase entails renovating a former workshop and a small cottage near a swimming pool. The workshop will provide sleeping quarters for four people, the cottage for another two.

Cooking is planned in the kitchen of Jonathan Lee’s adjacent home, a 1763 Georgian style house on 57 acres in the town’s farm and forest district. The main house and approach will be preserved. New structures proposed for phase two will be in the field northeast of the main house.

The area next to the pool will be used for farm activities, converting an existing lawn into organic vegetable gardens and small animal grazing areas.

Code Enforcement Officer Debra Parks Larrivee wrote in a memo that the proposed site plan is an allowed use with site plan review. She said criteria used in determining this are inns, including those with restaurants as an accessory use, private assembly and public assembly, and uses similar to permitted uses.

The April 19 hearing will be held at the Meeting House in Lower Gloucester and is open to the public for comment.