PORTLAND – The Board of Trustees of the Cumberland County Civic Center unanimously voted in support of a $28 million renovation plan Wednesday morning.

Residents will have to support the $28 million renovation plan by voting on a referendum question next year. The board also discussed doing the project in phases, with the board having the authority to bond up to $5 million without a public vote.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board bashed Westbrook developer Jason Snyder’s proposal to convert the arena into a convention center and build a new $85 million publicly-funded arena on land he owns in Westbrook or Portland.

“This is about saving a failed project in Westbrook,” trustee Mark Maroon said of Snyder’s proposal. “That’s the end game. It needed to be said.”

One option Snyder has pushed to the board in recent months is the construction of a new arena in Westbrook. It would have been located at the site of another Snyder proposal called Stroudwater Place. Plans for a $300 million high-end mixed-use development there have stalled due to the economy, though Snyder recently told the American Journal he still plans to move forward with the project.

He was unable to attend the trustees meeting Wednesday morning, which drew criticism from one trustee who said they have gone out of their way to accommodate Snyder.

John Menario, a vocal critic of Snyder’s proposal, said they held a special meeting for Snyder after he failed to show up at two scheduled meetings.

“He elected not to come here today,” Menario said.

Snyder sent a seven-page letter to the trustees Tuesday night after 5 p.m. In the letter, he said he was out of state on business.

The letter served as one last effort to sway the trustees toward backing his proposal. He claimed that converting the civic center into a convention center could bring $1.6 million in additional daily spending to downtown Portland if it held conventions of up to 4,000 attendees, while the arena would generate hundreds of construction jobs and benefit the entire county more than the civic center.

He wrote that the overwhelming majority of county residents he has spoken with do not support civic center renovations.

“The real question everyone asks me is ‘what’s my benefit?’ The Trustees plan does little to nothing. My plan brings economic and fiscal benefits to the region,” Snyder wrote in the letter.

Menario bashed the timing of the letter, as well as its contents. He cited a 2001 study by an advisory and planning firm that suggested there is a weak market for convention centers in Maine.

“Five months out of the year everyone wants to leave” the state, he said, while five other months are peak tourist season and bad timing for conventions.

He said a convention center might make a good addition to Portland, but not as a replacement for the civic center. He said the civic center generates $12 million or more annually.

Some on the board did not even want to spend more time going over the Snyder plan. Richard Ranaghan Jr. called it a “dead issue,” adding, “There’s no need to discuss that any further.”

Chairman Neal Pratt pointed out that, while Snyder has repeatedly cited an $85 million cost for the new arena, that number does not include $30 million to convert the arena into a convention center, $10 million for a parking garage and any other associated costs. He said Snyder’s plan is ultimately four times more expensive than the $28 million civic center renovations recommended by the task force created to examine the issue.

Task force members included representatives of the Portland Pirates and the city of Portland. Pirates managing owner and CEO Brian Petrovek said, “We couldn’t be more pleased and more encouraged with the outcome.”

Added Portland City Manager Joe Gray, “This really strikes a balance in terms of meeting those needs and adding to the life of the building.”

Snyder has argued the renovations would only add 10 years to the structure’s life.

“What nobody is asking, and nobody is prepared to answer, is what the real cost over the next 20 years and thereafter is. You have the 10-year answer, but no answer for beyond,” he wrote in the letter.

The trustees refuted that claim.

“My perception going forward is somewhere in the 15- to 20-year range” for the increased useful life, Pratt said.