The Portland city council has decided to continue an inquiry into developing West Hayden Island into a new 300-acre auto-import facility for the Port of Portland. Last night the council chambers, the upper balcony, and an overflow room with a TV monitor were packed with people supporting and opposing the development of the now-untouched land.

After hearing testimony from a reported 93 people, the council voted 4-0 (with Randy Leonard absent) to continue on the path to development, which will involve land-use and environmental impact studies. All the commissioners appeared to have made up their minds on the vote beforehand, and read from prepared statements before voting. Commissioners Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz (who supplemented her statement with responses to citizen comments) emphasized that the decision isn't binding. "Nothing in this resolution constitutes a final decision," said Fritz.

Dan Saltzman was the nit-picker of the night, to substantial praise: he introduced an amendment to clarify that the development would be a "deepwater" terminal, and said it was important to limit development to 300 acres and avoid land-use creep. An advisory board convened by Mayor Adams, which recommended development, suggests setting aside 300 acres for the port and 500 acres as open space. did not reach a consensus on whether mixed development and preservation was possible. Adams then brought forward the 300-acre development limit for council consideration.

The crowd was pretty much equally split between longshoremen and wildlife lovers. Our reporter Amanda Waldroupe was on the scene, taking about 3,458 pages of handwritten notes about the four-hour meeting. We'll have her story next week. A bunch of us were also bantering about the proceedings on Twitter.