LINCOLN — The Town Council voted 3-2 last night to approve an ordinance that forbids any out-of-town property owner from connecting to the town’s sewer system.

The few out-of-town properties that are connected to the sewer system will be allowed to continue, but no new ones will be allowed, according to the new ordinance. The vote came the same night the council was scheduled to hear a request by Douglas Lumber, a Smithfield business just over the town line off Twin River Road and Douglas Pike, to connect to the town’s Twin River Road sewer line. The ordinance was passed earlier in the meeting, and when the request came up the council declined to consider it, or even table it for another meeting.

The ordinance was proposed by Councilman John W. Flynn, who said he was troubled that the previous town ordinance on sewer connections seemed to leave it up to the council to decide on out-of-town cases individually. Standards could change from council to council, he said.

“All the subjective criteria should be taken out of it,” he said.

He compared allowing an out-of-town business to connect to allowing a Smithfield family to send its child to the Lincoln schools, where the family could get all the benefits financed by Lincoln taxpayers without paying their share of the costs.

Flynn was joined by councilmen James R. Jahnz and Ronald A. McKenna. Councilman Keith E. Macksoud and council president Jeremiah T. O’Grady opposed it.

Though he voted for the ban, McKenna questioned if it was as iron-clad as supporters hoped. A future council might decide to repeal Flynn’s ordinance just like Flynn’s overruled the previous one.

“An ordinance can be reversed down the road,” McKenna said “It just creates an additional step.”

Macksoud said Flynn’s blanket ban was an over-reaction and that the council should retain the ability to review each request on a case-by-case basis.

“We need an organized approach,” he said. “A blanket ‘no’ is not the answer.”

He said residents in various parts of Lincoln have benefited from other towns’ willingness to allow connections to their utilities, such as North Providence’s sewer system and the Pawtucket water system. Lincoln should be likewise considerate of its neighbors, he said.

O’Grady said he too was leery of Flynn’s all-or-nothing approach, saying he’d prefer an ordinance that set objective standards that an out-of-town property owner would have to meet.

For example, he said out-of-town connections might be allowed if the town engineer certified that the sewer line could handle the extra sewage, that a deed restriction were set to limit the flow and that the connecting property owner promised to pay for any repairs.

In Lincoln sewer bonds were paid off in part by town taxes, so the connecting resident or business would have to agree to pay an amount equal to what it would have been charged had the property been in Lincoln , O’Grady said. The town would also need an agreement with the other town (in the Douglas Lumber case, Smithfield), where the adjacent town would agree to place a lien on Lincoln’s behalf against any connected property owner who fell behind on his or her bills. The connecting business would also have to pay Lincoln for the enhanced taxable value the sewer connection brought to the property.

Macksoud came in for some criticism during the public comment part of the meeting. Steven Carlino is president of Douglas Lumber and Macksoud has said he is friends with the Carlino family. Carlino’s brother contributed $150 to Macksoud’s 2008 Town Council campaign.

Some speakers at the meeting last night complained, though they did not mention Macksoud by name, that some council member might have a conflict of interest because of friendship and campaign contributions.

“It raises a doubt in my mind,” said James B. Spooner, an unsuccessful independent candidate for town administrator this year. “I don’t like it. I don’t like seeing it. I don’t like remarking about it.”

During a break before the vote, Macksoud said he would not recuse himself.

“There’s not a problem here,” he said, “because I can be objective. I want to base the decision on what’s best for the community.”

Because of the ordinance vote, Douglas Lumber didn’t even get the chance to make its case.

Carlino has said Douglas Lumber needs the sewer connection because the septic field it has on its current property is failing. Though the business is across the Smithfield line, the nearest Smithfield sewer line is about a mile away. The Lincoln sewer line on Twin River Road is about 1,400 feet away.

Carlino said his building has five toilets; no vehicle washing facilities or cooking areas. He said the sewage flow generated by the property would be equal to about two average Lincoln houses. He said Douglas Lumber would agree to limit how much sewage could go through the line and submit to council review if that amount was to be exceeded. He said the company would consent to any “reasonable costs” of connecting.

Officials at the state Department of Environmental Management and the Narragansett Bay Commission have recommended the connection to the Lincoln line.

In the past the connection has been vehemently opposed by residents in the area who have said they fear the sewer line extension would set off commercial development in Smithfield, development the town of Lincoln would be unable to control.

In 2005 the council voted 3-2 against a similar Douglas Lumber request.

jhill@projo.com