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Councilman Paul Lancaster led a 6-1 vote to rescind a 2003 comprehensive plan amendment that supported a gravity sewer as "the most effective public wastewater treatment system to install in the Tom's Creek Basin." Lancaster asked the Long Range Planning Committee, on which he serves, to rescind the amendment last month, but the committee refused. So he brought it to council, he said.

He argued Tuesday night that council should rescind the amendment to "open up all options" to a consultant council will soon hire to study the town's sewer problems.

Councilwoman Joyce Lewis disagreed, first saying the consultant was not restricted by the comp plan, then saying that changing the plan would create hurdles.

"I don't see how the consultant could be limited by a more open comp plan," Councilman Tom Sherman said.

"We all know you have the votes," Lewis shot back. "Why can't you just leave it alone until we get the recommendation from the consultant?"

"Restoring the comp plan to a broader statement ... would give any consultant more leeway, not less," Councilman Don Langrehr said.

Lancaster served on the Planning Commission when the former pro-sewer council, including Lewis, asked for the amendment. He helped write it and promptly voted against recommending it to council. Council passed it with a 4-3 vote.

Lancaster was elected to council last May along with Langrehr and Councilman Ron Rordam, all of whom ran as anti-sewer candidates.

Mayor Roger Hedgepeth, who was pro-sewer and voted for the amendment, voted to rescind it Tuesday night.

"Frankly, I didn't think we needed it at the time," Hedgepeth said.

Lancaster said Wednesday he was "happy to have six votes instead of five."

Long-time Toms Creek Basin resident and gravity sewer opponent Mary Houska said Wednesday she was "very, very happy" with council's decision.

She said she and other sewer opponents spoke with Lancaster in January about rescinding the amendment, which Houska said "removed environmental protections for not only the Toms Creek Basin but the town" and created "a devastating problem."

Montgomery County attorney Christopher Tuck, who filed a lawsuit Tuesday to compel council to build a gravity sewer in the basin, said the vote violates the town's early 1970s annexation agreement to provide a sewer.

"By doing this, the council is saying we lied to get this land and now we're not going to live up to our word," he said.

Council took another long-awaited action Tuesday night when it appointed a citizen committee to study storm water, sewer and other utility issues. Council came up with the idea for the committee six months ago.

Members will be Robert Hoover, William McElfresh, Donald Mullins, John Novak, John Randolph, Sean Veltman and Jane Warner.

Novak and Mullins have also been tapped to help council choose the consultant that will study the town's sewer system.