The Portland City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve a compromise plan that will add long-term parking spots at the Portland International Jetport as soon as next year and begin the design of a parking garage expansion.

The 2,795 existing long-term spots at the jetport are routinely at or near capacity. Officials have been trying to address the problem for years, and the City Council rejected a plan last year to build a new surface parking lot over concerns about environmental impact and cost.

Since then, jetport officials have worked with stakeholders to shape the plan that was approved Monday.

“You guys have done an amazing job voicing your concerns and opinions, and I think we’ve finally come to a place where we agree on what needs to happen,” Councilor Regina Phillips said to residents in the meeting audience who live near the jetport.

Residents pushed back on earlier proposals for larger surface lots and questioned whether the jetport was considering alternatives, such as a garage expansion. Deborah Napier, vice president of the Stroudwater Neighborhood Association, spoke in support of this plan at the meeting and thanked Airport Director Paul Bradbury for working with her group.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Napier said.

The plan approved Monday will reconfigure two existing lots — a gravel lot with more than 300 spaces that has only been used for valet parking on very busy days and a cell phone lot with 100 spaces where people can currently wait to pick up arriving travelers.

The jetport will pave the gravel lot and add the markings and other fixtures that will bring it up to standards for self parking, officials said. The new surface lot will also include 2.1 acres next to the gravel lot that were cleared by the previous owner, but would not touch existing woodlands.

Those changes will add 537 spots for long-term parking. The work will cost $8.6 million, and officials said it should be complete in 2027.

The City Council also approved $1.5 million to design an expansion of the existing parking garage, which officials said would take three to five years to build. The potential full cost of that project is still unknown.

In 2023, jetport officials proposed more than 700 new spaces that would have extended into a wooded area bordering the Stroudwater neighborhood.

Residents and community groups worried about increased noise and light pollution from the jetport, as well as damage to nearby wetlands. The Portland Planning Board approved a scaled-back project but questioned whether the jetport had considered all options.

“I’m disappointed,” Chairman Brandon Mazer said in a meeting in January 2025. “I would rather see a garage built before we build in a wetland. We need to do better and hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

On Monday, Councilor Anna Bullett credited Bradbury for his professionalism and described her own recent experience trying to find a parking spot in the full lots at the jetport.

“We may be the Portland City Council, but we have the responsibility of this regional asset, maintaining it and making sure it serves all of our neighbors across the state,” Bullett said. “If you’ve been on a plane lately coming into Portland, you know that a lot of those folks coming off the planes have a long drive ahead of them, and for them to be able to have their car at the jetport makes that travel experience more possible.”