BIDDEFORD — Airport opponents were victorious again on Tuesday, when the City Council voted down a proposal to spend $13,000 to update engineering work at the Biddeford Municipal Airport.

The work would have been part of a site location of development permit application with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for the airport. Rejecting the funding for the engineering work in effect stops the application process. As a result, most safety improvements at the airport, required by the Federal Aviation Administration, are also halted.

Airport Manager Tom Bryand said he has no idea what will happen now.

One possible result is that the DEP could file a Notice of Violation and issue fines against the city. Attempts to reach representatives from the Maine DEP for comment were unsuccessful.

The site permit is needed, said Bryand, because there are more than three acres of pavement and other impervious surface at the airport, which is a violation of site law regulations.

The application process ”“ and design work for a storm water management system at the airport to mitigate the impervious surface ”“ began in 2006, said Bryand.

While preparing the application, the city discovered the airport was already in violation of DEP regulations because past projects had exceeded the three-acre limit for impervious surface.

The city received grant money from the FAA to hire an engineering firm to prepare the application.

But the permit application became an issue of contention by opponents of the airport, who objected to tree cutting near neighboring home owners’ property lines and feared that the permit would allow the airport to expand.

Last year the council voted to withdraw the permit. But, after hearing from a DEP representative that the permit was necessary, council members voted to once again go forward with the application.

Some airport opponents advocate pulling up enough of the impervious surface at the airport to fall below the three-acre site permit trigger.

This could save the city the cost of a storm water management system, which has a potential price tag of $800,000 or more. It would also end any hopes of airport expansion, from constructing additional airplane hangars to building a new runway.

But Bryand said the impervious area targeted as ripe for removal would not bring the airport below the three-acre mark.

Without the permit, he said, he also won’t be able to pursue needed safety construction that has nothing to do with airport expansion.

In the process of these machinations surrounding the airport, Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., which has been working on the permit application to date, has become the focus of some councilors’ displeasure with the situation.

“I’m not happy with Stantec,” said Councilor George “Pete” Lamontagne.

Councilor Clement Fleurent complained that despite the money the city has already paid to Stantec, the only result has been the contentious tree cutting. He said he also doesn’t think there should be much update work for Stantec to perform.

City Council President Bob Mills, who voted against the request to fund the update, asked Bryand whether the work could be done in-house.

In a telephone interview Friday, City Engineer Tom Milligan said both in terms of time and money, it makes the most sense for Stantec to conduct the necessary updates. If he did it, said Milligan, he would have to verify much of the work Stantec has already done.

Milligan also said he has no problem with Stantec’s work.

“They’re a nationally recognized firm,” said Milligan. “Everything I’ve seen them submit for the city has been fine.”

Bryand had hoped to use $13,000 from the current fiscal year budget, originally budgeted for needed pavement repairs, to pay Stantec to update engineering work for the site permit application, as required by the DEP.

Instead he will use the money to pay for the pavement improvements.

Mayor Joanne Twomey said she would like to put an item on the next agenda of the City Council to discuss removing impervious surface at the airport so that less than three acres remains.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.