BREWER – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to give Lowe’s Home Centers Inc. a wetlands permit for its planned Wilson Street retail store this week or next, project manager Jay Clement said Tuesday.

“Based on receipt of additional information and negotiation with Lowe’s and the Brewer Land Trust, the corps has been able to step back and process the application as a general permit, which means that Lowe’s should be able to get their permit quicker,” he said. “It’s good news for Lowe’s.”

Lowe’s, a build-it-yourself home-improvement company, received planning board approval in October to build a 139,410-square-foot store on outer Wilson Street, which includes a 31,659-square-foot garden center.

The original wetlands permit request to fill in 1.32 acres of wetlands at the site included on-site mitigation but was modified to allow for off-site mitigation to compensate for the construction. The off-site mitigation will be announced when the final permit is in hand.

“We can do better environmentally if we look at the big picture,” City Planner Linda Johns said Tuesday of the planned off-site mitigation.

She said following program guidelines, which map environmentally sensitive areas in communities, makes for better long-term citywide planning.

During the October planning board meeting, representatives from Lowe’s said that after reviewing several sites in the region, they picked Brewer because of the site’s relatively minor effects on wetlands.

The permit is just another step for the Lowe’s project in Brewer, D’arcy Main-Boyington, Brewer economic development director, said Tuesday.