WESTBROOK – A state Business and Consumer Court judge has set a date to consider the approval of a consent decree between the city of Westbrook and Pike Industries.

On Monday, Superior Court Justice Thomas Humphrey set a hearing date on a motion from Pike to grant preliminary approval of the consent decree for July 18 at 10 a.m. in the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland.

The hearing comes as the result of a June 14 ruling by the Maine Supreme Court, which said the city had right to enter into a consent agreement with Pike and can declare its operations “grandfathered” from zoning regulations that would otherwise ban the blasting activity.

However, the court partially sided with Artel Inc. and Smiling Hill Farm, neighbors of Pike. They had appealed the agreement by claiming it was reached illegally and largely out of public view. The court said Westbrook could not enforce any of the performance guarantees in the consent agreement unless those standards were written into local zoning ordinances, or else a special “contract zone” is created, codifying stipulations of the consent agreement. The agreement has been remanded back to the Maine Business and Consumer Court, which approved it in 2010, for further review.

Pike, which had planned on blasting at the quarry both this week and last week, has agreed to hold off until the court could rule on the consent decree. The company had also asked the court to approve the decree without a hearing, but Humphrey denied that motion.