AUBURN – A split vote doomed a plan to put more zoning decisions in staff hands Monday night.

The zoning change that would have let small businesses expand uses that don’t match zoning codes was able to get three yes votes, short of the five needed to pass.

But amendment backer Jim McPhee said he hopes councilors will consider similar changes in the future.

“There are at least three local businesses that we know of that would benefit from something like this,” McPhee said. “And those are just the ones we know of. There could be many others that we’ve never heard of. So, I think this will come up again.”

Current zoning codes require businesses that don’t conform to zoning codes go before the Planning Board if they hope to expand – adding a second floor, for example. That can cost as much as $1,800 in city fees and engineering expenses.

McPhee’s amendment would let those businesses ask city staff for approval for expansions of less than 25 percent of existing square footage. If staff doesn’t agree, the business could appeal to the Planning Board for a $150 filing fee.

Both city planning staff and the Planning Committee supported the amendment.

It failed by a 3-3 vote, however. Councilors Belinda Gerry, Joe DeFilipp and Robert Mennealy supported the measure, while Councilors Kelly Matzen, Bethel Shields and Marcel Bilodeau voted against it. Councilor Richard Livingston did not attend Monday’s City Council meeting.

“I think this is long overdue, in support of small businesses,” Mennealy said.

But other councilors said they had problems. Bilodeau said he felt the amendment allowed some business to get around due process while Shields said she was afraid it left neighbors without recourse. Matzen said he felt it missed the point of having zoning.

“The goal of zoning is to get rid of nonconforming uses as quickly as justice permits,” Matzen said.

Councilors first discussed the matter in May and tabled it then. Mennealy and Gerry both tried to keep the amendment on the table Monday, assuming they didn’t have enough votes to pass it.

“We knew we needed five votes, and we knew we didn’t have that,” Mennealy said.