WARREN — Officials and residents got their first peek at the master plan for the American Tourister project yesterday when developers came before the town’s technical review committee.

In the first phase of what is sure to be a lengthy review, Meredith Management Corp. president John Rosenthal and development team Meredith Tourister Development Group, LLC presented detailed building plans and answered questions for the Planning Board subcommittee.

Rosenthal, whose team has met with Building Official William Nash and the town’s engineering firm Pare Engineering, said before the meeting that his plan will meet the town’s permit requirements and become a reality.

“I don’t know that it will be a straight line, but it never is,” he said.

Indeed, concerns raised about the engineering and architectural aspects of the plan last night hinted that this will be an involved review process. Questions centered on how the project would affect the town’s wastewater-treatment plant, traffic flow, parking, and the town’s affordable-housing rate.

Planning Board member André Asselin asked why Rosenthal did not first submit a concept plan. Flipping through Rosenthal’s lengthy master plan, he said it appeared Rosenthal had already put a lot of work into something that may not go through.

Planning vice chairman Davison Bolster asked why Rosenthal didn’t request pre-application meetings, which are normally required for large developments.

“Seems to be rather putting the cart before the horse,” he said.

“It’s going to be ram-rodded down our throats,” said Planning Board member Byron Kee.

Asselin also said the 83-foot proposed height of the mill building significantly exceeds the town’s 35-foot building-height restriction.

Currently 60-feet high, the historic building would be grandfathered into the town’s existing zoning requirements, but developers hoped to add two more floors of living space.

“That building has to remain at 60 feet. It cannot exceed that,” he said.

The committee asked for a memo from Rosenthal’s attorney defending the proposed height, plans for the developer’s traffic study of the area, and documentation of the property’s environmental history before the application can move forward.

Rosenthal remains hopeful of a positive outcome, but said it was important that the full Planning Board weigh in on the project in a public hearing.

“If they approve great, and if they deny, we’ll appeal,” he said.

Since he first introduced the project in May, the development, hailed as the largest in the East Bay, has undergone changes to the amount of commercial and open space, and the building layout.

Now called the Tourister Mill Development, the project now includes 350 residential units along with 40,000 square feet of commercial space and 180,000 square feet of open space on 14 acres.

Other features include restaurant and retail space on Water Street, affordable live/work space for artists and a possible art gallery, a 1,400-foot waterfront walkway, and pedestrian and bike paths connecting the waterfront walkway and the East Bay bike path to the Warren Town Wharf.

Developers also hope to incorporate a study that would convert tidal energy from the Palmer River into electricity. Rosenthal’s team has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the state to conduct a feasibility study, and hopes to include an education component about tidal energy along the waterfront.

They project that the plan, which would bring in 200 construction jobs, work for retail employees and trade professionals, and approximately $2 million a year in property-tax revenue, will also bring long-term economic growth to the town.

“This is just the beginning,” Rosenthal said.