YORK – The effort to build a new toll plaza along the Maine Turnpike in York has run into its first organized opposition.

A group of York residents launched a lobbying drive today to convince Maine Turnpike Authority officials to redraw their list of proposed sites for a new plaza.

More than a dozen Chase’s Pond Road residents are asking state legislators to help them keep a new toll plaza from moving in next door to their centuries-old neighborhood and the town’s water treatment plant.

Turnpike authority officials are considering four prospective locations for a new toll plaza that would replace the one that stands just north of Exit 7 in York.

The current toll plaza was built in 1969 and was expected to last 25 years. It was built on wetlands and is sinking at a rate of about an inch a year, so turnpike officials hope to replace the booths by 2011.

The authority held a sparsely-attended public hearing on the four prospective replacement sites – all of them are located in York, just miles north of the existing plaza – late last month.

Authority officials planned to select a new site from the list by May and begin the $35 million project next year.

All four proposals would cost at least one York resident their home.

Two of the four – at miles 8.7 and 9.9 on the turnpike – would pave rural parts of Chase’s Pond Road and leave toll booths sitting next to the York Water District. Michael Walek and his partner, Todd Bezold, held a meeting at their home this afternoon to organize opponents of such a move.

They said they plan to pressure state legislators to have both of the proposed sites stricken from the turnpike authority’s list.

Turnpike Spokesman Dan Paradee said officials are just now starting to weigh each prospective site’s impact beyond what homes would be razed.

“We’re not placing them out there saying they’re not going to have any impact at all – they’re all going to have some impact,” Paradee said this afternoon.