WESTBROOK – After months of negotiations, the city of Westbrook announced Friday that it has brokered an agreement between Pike Industries and Idexx Laboratories that will allow Pike to operate its controversial Spring Street quarry, although with restrictions.

The consent agreement, which will limit Pike to blasting no more than eight times per year, is expected to result in a dismissal of litigation Pike filed against the city, and it will allow both companies to continue to operate in the city.

Idexx, located in an industrial park across the street from the quarry, had been a major opponent of blasting at the site, and had threatened that if restrictions weren’t put in place it wouldn’t go through with its plans to build its new headquarters in Westbrook.

The agreement announced Friday essentially is comprised of the recommendations made by a city steering committee that Mayor Colleen Hilton had previously convened to address the issue. But it also includes some tougher provisions, the mayor said.

“This is a good day for Westbrook,” she said Friday at a press conference to announce the consent agreement.

However, not everyone is happy with it.

Artel Inc., a nearby business that manufactures instruments for measuring liquids, opposed any blasting at the site because it said that seismic waves from blasting could impact its delicate instruments. Artel on Friday held a press conference immediately before the one held by the city, complaining of being shut out of negotiations and saying that the 55-employee company now plans to leave the city once it finds a new location.

And while one neighbors’ group praised the agreement as a good compromise that benefits taxpayers by keeping two major businesses, Pike and Idexx, in the city, another group says nearby residents will be the losers now Pike can re-open the quarry.

Tim Bachelder, spokesman for that group, Westbrook Residents for Environmental Safety and Trust, said he plans to ask the City Council to consider adding a provision to the agreement requiring Pike make a buyout offer to residents who want to leave.

The consent agreement must now be approved by the City Council before it goes to a judge for approval. The council will hold a public hearing and vote on the issue on Aug. 30.

Copies of the agreement can be obtained at City Hall and the Walker Memorial Library or from the city’s website, www.westbrookmaine.com.