SOUTH PORTLAND – It’s not often that a new restaurant arrives in South Portland with such a pedigree that City Council members fairly crawl all over each other racing to make the motion approving its license to operate.

Still, that’s what happened Monday when Councilor Linda Cohen outdueled Patti Smith for the honor, leaving the latter the consolation prize of seconding the motion.

“I know we are not supposed to have favorites, but I have to say I have fallen in love with Otto Pizza,” said Cohen.

Founded in Portland in 2009 by longtime restaurateurs Mike Keon and Anthony Allen, the popular eatery has since grown to five locations, two in Portland and three in Massachusetts.

The owners declined to talk about their new location at 159 Cottage Road in South Portland following issuance of their restaurant license Monday.

“We’d prefer to wait until we are a little closer, just in case something happens,” said Allen, adding that an August opening is planned.

The location was formerly a Getty station and plans calls for a 30-seat dining room in the old garage bays, while the kitchen will be built into the former office of the 792-square-foot building.

The building went up for public auction last August and the city librarian had suggested South Portland buy and raze it to clear a view of the library from the intersection of Cottage Road and Highland Avenue, by Red’s Dairy Freeze.

Although underground gas tanks were removed form the quarter-acre lot in 2006, the City Council declined to place a bid, in part because of Maine Department of Environmental Protection reports from as recently as February 2011 which found the site “not clean to MDEP satisfaction.”

The property eventually sold to 159 Cottage Road LLC for $148,500. Keon said Otto will lease the site from the property owner, whom he declined to name.

This former Getty gas station at 159 Cottage Road, located across the intersection from Red’s Dairy Freeze, is expected by August to become the newest location for Otto Pizza. Staff photo by Duke Harrington