WESTBROOK – One week after members of the Westbrook City Council’s Committee of the Whole vowed to make big changes to the Planning Board’s recommended restrictions for fireworks in the city, the City Council decided to effectively kill any local regulation on retail fireworks sales, instead relying on state law.

The City Council on Monday voted 4-3 (Councilors Dorothy Aube, Paul Emery and Council President Brendan Rielly opposed) to indefinitely postpone any action on the proposed restrictions. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, which the council uses to conduct its meetings, indefinite postponement is the equivalent of rejecting the item.

The council seemed poised to make changes to the Planning Board’s restrictions until City Solicitor Natalie Burns explained that since the issue was a zoning issue, any changes would require the matter to be returned to the Planning Board for a public hearing. Burns said to avoid going back to the Planning Board, the council could indefinitely postpone the issue, which would kill it, and then, with no local restrictions, state law would apply to the issue of fireworks sales in the city.

The Planning Board’s recommended standards limited the sale of consumer fireworks to the Gateway Commercial District, which encompasses Main Street, from approximately Westbrook City Hall to the Portland border and to the Westbrook Arterial.

The board placed several other restrictions on any proposed fireworks stores, including a 500-foot setback from Main Street, a requirement that a store must be at least 1,000 feet from any other fireworks store, a limit to the hours of operation from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. and a sign limit of just the name of the business, with no graphics allowed.

Under state law, which now will apply in Westbrook, fireworks can be sold in any district that allows retail sales, which would include the Gateway and downtown Westbrook.

However, they are still subject to a number of regulations that limit where they can be placed. Under state law, fireworks can only be stored and sold in a separate, standalone building with a sprinkler system, not connected to any other businesses. Additionally, the building has to be more than 60 feet from any other building and must be more than 300 feet from any place where gasoline, propane or other flammable material is sold or dispensed. Also, no matches, lighters, cigarettes or any other tobacco products are allowed in the building where fireworks are sold and no one under 21 can be in the store without a parent or guardian.

Rielly said he favored the tighter restrictions crafted by the Planning Board.

“I think the restrictions that the Planning Board crafted are reasonable and I support them,” he said.

Councilor Mike Foley, who said he was concerned about fireworks stores being opened near residences, said he was satisfied that the state restrictions would prevent that from happening.

Foley added that while he was against the Planning Board’s proposal for restrictions because he wanted Westbrook to be “open for business,” he thought that the council’s action was too late and the city has “missed the boat” on seeing a fireworks business open in Westbrook, as the prime season for fireworks sales passes.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to open a fireworks store in Westbrook,” he said.

In other action Monday, the City Council gave its preliminary approval to yet another change to the city’s sprinkler ordinance.

Councilors voted 7-0 in favor of a change to exempt all single-family and two-unit properties from the ordinance. The change would include both existing properties and any new properties to be built in the future. This change comes just a month after the City Council amended the ordinance to exempt renovation projects from having to install sprinkler systems if the scope of the project did not exceed 75 percent of the floor area.

The new amendment to the ordinance will become final after the council holds a second vote on the matter at a meeting scheduled for July 16 at 7 p.m. in room 114 of Westbrook High School.