Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, after the Current’s print deadline in which the following story appeared, a proposed moratorium on propane facilities within city limits failed to gain a supermajority vote from the South Portland City Council.

The South Portland City Council was scheduled to hold a final vote this week on a controversial moratorium that could sideline a proposed new liquid propane distribution facility at the Rigby Rail Yard.

At a meeting last week, the Planning Board voted 6-1 against recommending a six-month moratorium on any new commercial liquefied petroleum gas storage and distribution facilities, which would specifically impact a plan by NGL Supply Co. to move into South Portland.

For the moratorium to take effect, it would require a five-vote supermajority at the council level, which is unlikely with three councilors telling the Current this week they will not change their opposition to the measure.

The council is scheduled to take a final vote on the proposed moratorium on Wednesday, after the Current’s print deadline.

Councilors Maxine Beecher, Linda Cohen and Claude Morgan have been steadfast in not supporting the moratorium.

“I believe I will still vote against it,” Beecher said earlier this week. “I honestly don’t think that any additional time will change the reality” that the NGL project can be managed safely with South Portland’s existing zoning and fire codes.

Cohen said, “I stated at candidates night that I would not support a moratorium (and) I am not going back on that now that I’ve been re-elected. There is no new information that changes that decision for me.”

She also said that her vote is not “about supporting or opposing the (NGL) project. It’s about supporting the process in place for any property owner – residential or commercial – that wants to use their property,” Cohen said. “It’s (about being) transparent, balanced and fair. In my opinion, the council should not try to do the job of its other appointed boards and committees.”

Morgan also said he’s not been convinced of the need for a moratorium.

He said the citizen-written amendments to the city’s fire code, which would require a minimum safe distance from critical infrastructure for any liquid propane distribution project, are “poorly researched and factually incorrect.”

He’s also concerned that the moratorium and the calls for further review of the fire code and zoning rules is “a play for time to delay or prevent the project.”

Morgan said it’s also clear that city councilors Brad Fox and Eben Rose “simply don’t want the project,” and will do what they can to prevent NGL from building its new liquid propane distribution center at Rigby Yard.

He’s not opposed to the city having a discussion about developing policy to regulate fossil fuels, but said trying to create policy “on the back of an applicant is misplaced.”

Mayor Tom Blake told the Current this week he doesn’t expect any of the councilors to change their vote on the proposed moratorium, but argued those who pushed for the ban on the development of new petroleum distribution or storage facilities did the right thing.

Blake also said he was disappointed by the discussion at the Planning Board on Jan. 12, saying that board members should not have let the proposed NGL project cloud their debate on the moratorium.

Blake continues to assert that the moratorium is not tied to the NGL project and said the company’s proposal is not referenced once in the moratorium language.

Rose said this week that the moratorium “was never intended to target NGL or any single firm, but all propane developments that are of a scale to trigger a potential conflict with (our) code.”

It was Rose, prior to his election to the council in the fall, who alerted city officials to the fact that NGL’s original proposal did not comply with South Portland zoning because it called for the storage of more than 10,000 cubic feet of propane.

Rose continued to argue that NGL’s subsequent, scaled-down site plan application also failed to meet city code. On Jan. 8, Patricia Doucette, the city’s director of code enforcement, sent a letter to NGL to that effect.

In response, NGL’s project consultant, Stantec, sent a letter back stating the company “is aware of the ordinance section in question and has every capability and intention to comply with it.”

The letter went on to say, “These are precisely the sorts of issues that the Planning Board process is designed to address. However, for nearly seven months we have been systemically denied the opportunity to present our proposal and answer any questions before the Planning Board.”

In addition, Stantec says that NGL plans to submit a third site plan application, despite Blake publicly calling on NGL and Pan Am, which owns the Rigby Yard, to drop the project.

Overall, Rose said, the debate about the NGL project and whether the city’s regulations are adequate “has tapped into very deeply held differences in how we envision the role of executive staff in representative government” – in particular, “how executive staff can be held accountable when it goes off script or makes mistakes. There has been and continues to be rival claims of what constitutes proper procedure in both regards.”

Rose added, “It is amazing and disappointing to me that this issue, which began as a mistake in enforcing our existing code, has become so politicized.”

Fox also said he would continue to support the moratorium.

“It’s needed for the city to further research and deliberate what we need to do to protect our residents from harm,” he said.

In the end, he said, “We will probably have to rewrite and combine several of our ordinances to make them more clear and effective.”

He also said, “I believe that there’s been a change in many residents’ thinking about South Portland being the convenient dumping ground for gas and oil company facilities.”

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