The South Portland City Council on Monday is expected to reconsider a controversial proposal for a moratorium on the development of propane storage and distribution facilities that was defeated last week in a confused act of parliamentary procedure.

The council considered the moratorium Dec. 9 amid mounting conflict over a proposal by NGL Terminal Supply Co. to build a liquefied petroleum gas depot at Rigby Yard.

Councilor Eben Rose said Tuesday evening that he plans to ask fellow councilors to reconsider the moratorium that he supported but helped to defeat by voting in favor of a last-minute motion to indefinitely postpone the proposal. The action effectively killed the proposal, preventing it from being resubmitted during the current council year, which runs through November 2016.

If the council supports Rose’s bid for reconsideration, it will then vote on whether to send the moratorium to the Planning Board for review and recommendation.

“I’m fairly confident we have the four votes necessary to do that,” said Rose, who is allowed to call for reconsideration because he was on the prevailing side that approved the postponement.

A newly elected councilor, Rose said he was ill when the vote was taken and was confused by the council’s rules as they were explained to him during his first meeting.

The vote to indefinitely postpone took place after hours of testimony and deliberation, just as the council was expected to vote 4-3 in favor of sending the proposed moratorium to the Planning Board.

Councilor Brad Fox, who also supported the moratorium, surprised many councilors and audience members when he made the motion. Several councilors noted that such an action would effectively kill the proposal and prevent it from being resubmitted for a year.

With that warning, the council voted 4-3 to indefinitely postpone, with support from Councilors Claude Morgan, Linda Cohen, Maxine Beecher and Rose.

Rose said immediately after the meeting that he still didn’t believe that the motion killed it.

Councilors Fox, Patti Smith and Mayor Tom Blake opposed the motion. Fox said after the meeting that he made the motion to indefinitely postpone because he wanted the council to consider additional information about the proposed moratorium.

Ultimately, however, Fox said he didn’t believe the moratorium would win the five votes needed to pass it after a Planning Board review.

NGL’s proposal for a propane depot at Rigby Yard has drawn strong opposition from some residents. The company must leave its existing depot on Commercial Street on Portland’s waterfront by next spring, when the state plans to start expanding the International Marine Terminal.

Tex Haeuser, city planning director, informed NGL representatives Monday that the company’s proposal, which was found lacking when it was submitted in September, is now considered complete after the company provided additional materials.

Barring any action by the council to the contrary, the Planning Board could hold a public hearing on the NGL proposal as early as Jan. 12, when the board may seek additional information, Haeuser said in his letter to the company.

 

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