A judge’s decision last week that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection should have considered the entire casino project in Oxford County during the permitting process raises an interesting procedural question.

On one hand, the Androscoggin River Alliance feels the entire three-stage project should have been reviewed and permitted at the same time. Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy agrees.

On the other, the Bureau of Environmental Protection and Black Bear Development argued that each piece of the project could be permitted when a decision was made to build it.

The BEP explained that it relied on language in Maine’s Site Location of Development Act that allows “in the absence of evidence sufficient to approve all phases of a proposed development, the Board may approve one or more phases of the development based on the evidence then available.”

Which is exactly what the board did, which makes much more practical sense than how the judge says the project should have been handled.

Since the beginning, Black Bear Development has maintained that this would be a phased project that could include amenities such as a garage, hotel and RV park.

A complete resort was their vision and it remains their goal. But they were always clear that other components of the project would depend on the success of the casino.

In a flier called “Just the facts,” released by the casino investors in January 2010, Black Bear plainly said the project would be completed in three stages over five years. The first stage would be a casino, restaurant and lounge.

Indeed, what they proposed to do, and have now done, is far more elaborate than the commitment Hollywood Slots made in Bangor to test the waters. That out-of-state group simply rolled slot machines into a redecorated restaurant without building anything.

If things had not gone well, they would have rolled them right back out and lost little.

At a public meeting in Paris on Dec. 8, 2010, well before the casino vote, the staging issue was very clear.

The casino construction would be divided into three phases. After the first phase was built, later additions, including a 200-room hotel and parking garage, would depend upon market conditions at the time, voters were told.

Which to anyone with any business experience makes perfect sense, especially in an industry that is changing so rapidly,

Why would anyone invest in a massive, risky project all at once when it could just as easily be done in phases depending on the success of the business?

Second, why would any business do the engineering, present testimony and get approval for subsequent phases of a project before you were ready to build them?

Again, that makes lousy business sense. If you don’t go through with those phases, you have simply wasted time and money on a dream that never panned out.

Anyone can see the countervailing risk of seeking approval in stages. Although we sincerely doubt this, the BEP could later find the site was unsuitable for a hotel or garage.

In that case, the project or site would be modified. Either that or the hotel, parking garage or RV park could not be built.

Black Bear Development was clear about its intentions from the beginning. Critics now loudly complain they didn’t build everything on day one.

Those people were simply not paying attention or, more likely, will continue to oppose this project no matter how successful it becomes.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.