The Barry Controls facility in Brighton is the proposed site for a Lowe’s store.

A vacant manufacturing plant in Brighton could become the site for a home improvement store incorporating some unusual features. But residents are worried that the arrival of a big-box retailer would exacerbate already-congested roads in the neighborhood.

Lowe’s Home Centers Inc. is proposing to demolish the vacated Barry Controls industrial building on Guest Street and build a two-level store. The 198,000-square-foot facility would include a garden center on the 5.3-acre site with parking for 378 cars.

If approved, Lowe’s would join a number of newer buildings in the neighborhood, including WGBH’s 6-story building, Stop & Shop and New Balance. In a community meeting hosted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority last week, residents said congestion is choking their streets and expressed doubts that a do-it-yourself retailer was the right kind of facility for Brighton.

“The WGBH and New Balance buildings have contributed half of the traffic that is clogging our streets,” said State Rep. Michael J. Moran, a Boston Democrat whose district includes the Brighton neighborhood. “I can’t imagine that North Beacon and Market Streets can handle this type of facility. I’m not closed-minded, but you will find lots of very skeptical residents as you move forward.”

Jay Rourke, the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s project manger whose family lives in Brighton, acknowledged that the biggest concern is traffic. He tried to reassure the four-dozen residents who gathered at the Jackson Mann Elementary School that Lowe’s filing of a project notification form is just the first step.

“This is a long process,” he said. “Neighbors’ concerns will be answered.”

Lawrence LePere, Lowe’s site development manager, noted that company has more than 1,400 stores nationwide and is adding new stores at a rate of about 150 annually. He said Lowe’s is the 19th largest employer in the United States and the 14th largest retailer in the world, with 210,000 employees. Of that number, he said, 75 percent are full-time workers with benefits. He declined to provide details about pay scales, saying they do not reveal such information in public meetings. He said they are committed to communities and contribute to local schools.

“We are very serious about our commitment to our local communities and serious about being responsible corporate citizens,” he said. “We think we will be very good for your neighborhood.”

Brian Potvin, a project engineer with Tetra Tech Rizzo who is employed by Lowe’s in their Northeast expansion, said they had to be creative fitting a store on the small site. As a result, he said, the building’s architecture represents a “dramatic” departure for the Wilkesboro, N.C.-based chain.

“The Brighton store is a reach for them,” he said. “The building is unique and designed to blend into the neighborhood. Lowe’s is willing to make compromises and hopes to get ideas from residents.”

James Sullivan, an architect from Carter & Burgess Inc., the Texas-based firm representing Lowe’s, said the store will have a “signature” look.

“We looked at the new construction in the neighborhood and found glass, metal, corrugated metal, ribbon windows and worked from that,” he said.

As a result, Sullivan said, the side of the building that will face the Massachusetts Turnpike would be sloped. The edge of the Turnpike side will be wrapped in a blue band with the trademark Lowe’s sign. To break down the scale of the building on the Guest Street, the architect would provide a gray screen and use windows that offer transparency and give the facility a more animated look. The parking deck edges would be clad in a perforated screen to conceal the cars.

Active Area

While two residents said they were supportive of the project, traffic was the major issue during the two-hour meeting.

In response to traffic questions, Jeffrey Dirk, vice president at Vanasse & Assoc., an Andover-based traffic engineering firm, said Lowe’s is planning a traffic study. Among the hurdles to clear, he said, is to make sure that narrow Guest Street can accommodate two-way traffic with trucks and pedestrians.

“You will see improvements on Guest Street,” Dirk said. “The cross sections will change on that road where necessary and sidewalks will be installed with provisions made for bicycles. We also have to have connections to the bus stop near the Stop & Shop. It has to be accessible and walkable for employees and customers.”

In addition, Dirk said some of the intersections would be improved so that vehicular access will flow easily on very congested streets. Still, Dirk said it was unlikely that Lowe’s would fix every traffic problem in the neighborhood.

“There are things we can do to rectify some of the traffic, but we can’t solve everything,” Dirk said. “I would be lying to you if I suggested that the traffic study will say all of these intersections will operate perfectly and there won’t be any backups. We will try to make things better. We will present the impact of our project and what we feel are possible solutions. It may not get all the congestion out of this area. That’s a much bigger task than Lowe’s can undertake.”

Rep Kevin Honan, a Boston Democrat whose district abuts the store, asked about the delivery times. Lowe’s officials said the deliveries would be limited to off-peak hours.

One of the suggestions was to have access routed through Braintree Street, which is not a residential thoroughfare, to take traffic off of North Beacon Street. Company officials said they would consider the idea.

Paul Berkeley, president of the Allston Civic Association, was skeptical about improvements that could be made. He insisted that any traffic study be comprehensive and include not only Lowe’s but also other developments in the planning stages.

“We are already seeing the impact of several new projects in our neighborhood,” he said.

Rep. Moran asked that the Boston Redevelopment Authority comment period be extended beyond the July 20 deadline because the neighborhood just received a 500-page project impact report from Harvard University on the first of several new buildings it is planning to develop there.

“We are inundated,” he said. “We don’t live in a vacuum in this community. Many of these people here tonight are out at meetings like this every night of the week. It’s tough for all of us to digest all this stuff. I don’t want to be unreasonable, but there’s so much coming at us we need more time.”