SOUTH PORTLAND – The South Portland City Council on Monday passed the first reading of a Waterfront Protection Ordinance presented via citizen petition, by a vote of 4-0, with three members absent.

Little comment was offered by councilors, who will vote again Aug. 19 to send the proposal, which restricts expansion of the petroleum industry in the city, to referendum Nov. 5. That session will include a public hearing and, because of the anticipated crowd, will be begin at 6 p.m. in the auditorium at Mahoney Middle School.

“Based on the hour and 20 minutes of comment we got Monday, when we didn’t even have a public hearing, we maybe should start even earlier,” joked Mayor Tom Blake, on Tuesday morning.

By that time, the Planning Board will have weighed in on the measure’s compatibility with South Portland’s new comprehensive plan, which was adopted last year. The Planning Board was to have made that ruling at its July 23 meeting, but a comma in the version of the ordinance advertised not in the version petitioned by advocacy group Concerned Citizens of South Portland pushed back a decision to the board’s Aug. 13 meeting. At Monday’s meeting, the council solved what one resident called “comma-gate” by excising the errant punctuation.