A proposal to pave the way for private student housing developments in Dartmouth was withdrawn before a public hearing at the September 12 Planning Board meeting.

The proposal, which voters would have had to approve at the October Town Meeting, sought to create zoning regulations to allow private developers to build student housing developments within two miles of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth through a special permit.

According to documents outlining the proposal, it would have permitted a maximum lot size of 50 acres, with buildings of up to three stories and no more than 50 bedrooms in each building. Complexes would have been required to have a 50-foot buffer area to separate them from neighboring properties.

Walter Smith, the petitioner requesting the change along with 10 other petitioners, submitted a letter announcing the formal withdrawal of the proposal. The letter did not specify reasons for the withdrawal.

Dartmouth resident Carol Cabral opposed the project, and was happy to it ousted. She said that student housing is out of place for a neighborhood with single-family homes, and she worries about problems that 500 college students could bring to the neighborhood.

“I think they will be back,” Cabral said. “This isn’t the first time they’ve tried this, and I’d be surprised if they don’t come back in the spring.”

Cabral also opposed a 2013 proposal to build a 504-bedroom student housing complex at a vacant gravel pit on Old Westport Road.