HOPES FOR A soccer stadium home in Everett for the New England Revolution were dealt a big blow on Thursday as a budget deal between House and Senate negotiators left out a provision that would have streamlined zoning for a planned 25,000-seat venue along the Mystic River. 

The team, owned by The Kraft Group, which also owns the New England Patriots, has long wanted to move from Gillette Stadium to a site closer to Boston. It has been angling for several years to build a stadium on land near the Wynn casino in Everett. 

A major hurdle has been state zoning of the parcel as a Designated Port Area, a status meant to preserve certain waterfront parcels for port-related uses. The Senate inserted language in a $2.8 billion closeout budget package that would have removed the DPA designation for a 43-acre Everett parcel that is now home to a shuttered power plant. 

The House had approved similar language in a measure last year that failed to advance at the time, so the pieces seemed to be in place for the provision to be included in the budget agreement reached Thursday by top Democrats in the two branches. Instead, the spending bill emerged from closed-door negotiations without the stadium language.

Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, the House’s lead negotiator on the spending bill, indicated he opposed moving ahead with the zoning change this year because of unanswered questions about a soccer stadium’s impact.

“It was a different time and a different discussion at the time [last year] versus where it was this year,” he said after the House adjourned without taking action on the spending bill. “There was a little more clarity related to what it was going to be, but I think we still had a lot of unanswered questions about what impacts this was going to have from an environmental standpoint. There was a lot of confusion coming from the environmental groups. Some said they supported for it, some said they were against it. I think we still have a lot of things to iron out, to flesh out.”

Michlewitz acknowledged that TD Garden, which is in his district, had also raised concerns about a soccer stadium being built less than three miles away. The Garden’s owners don’t want competition for concerts from a venue that nearby.

“TD Garden definitely had weighed in in terms of the conversation,” Michlewitz said. “It was about adding another major facility in a very similar area to TD Garden, having two of those facilities at the same time without the city of Boston having any conversation or any seat at the table in that dialogue was very lacking and I think it’s something we have to address if we’re going to do this conversation going forward.”

Michlewitz recommended that supporters of the zoning change file legislation and let it go through the regular hearing process.

Like Michlewitz, several environmental groups, led by the Conservation Law Foundation and Boston Harbor Now, objected to attaching the zoning change to a massive budget bill, arguing such a decision should come through the normal channels for passing stand-alone legislation. Earlier this month, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu also raised concerns about being left out of discussions concerning a site right on the city’s border. 

Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria voiced disappointment in Thursday’s developments, and said he’ll continue to press state officials to authorize the zoning change. 

“I continue to maintain the position that a privately-funded professional soccer stadium, which will invest millions into an historic remediation effort of a defunct power plant, provide economic mobility opportunities for our Everett residents, advance the region’s multi-modal transit network, and create much-needed access to the Mystic River would be the best use of that portion of Everett’s waterfront,” DeMaria said in a statement.

Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett, who pushed for the provision in the Senate, had earlier helped set up meetings among environmental groups and community leaders in Everett. The city ultimately signed a memorandum of understanding with The Kraft Group, which agreed to pay $5 million for a new community center, $10 million for an affordable housing fund, and setting aside four acres of the parcel for a public park. 

“I’m disappointed this language wasn’t included in the final bill,” DiDomenico said in a statement. “We have worked hard on this issue because as an environmental justice community we deserve something better than a polluted power plant on our waterfront. This is a transformational project and an economic catalyst for our area.”

Brian Bilello, president of the New England Revolution, also expressed disappointment. “The city of Everett and local officials approached the Kraft Group to help clean up a dilapidated power plant and brownfield site in an environmental justice community by replacing it with what we saw as an opportunity to bring waterfront access and economic development to the region with a potential soccer stadium and public waterfront park,” he said in a statement. “We are disappointed that the Legislature did not clear a path forward to determine the feasibility of this project and that the public process was halted before it could begin.” 

Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, praised the decision not to include the zoning change in the spending plan. “It’s terrific that the Legislature abandoned the proposed spot zoning of a single working waterfront site in a supplemental budget,” he said. “Decisions about the future of the Commonwealth’s working waterfront should not be made in piecemeal spot zoning decisions, but should be based on a thoughtful planning process rather than through a special play for a single well-heeled developer.”

DiDomenico thanked Senate President Karen Spilka and Senate Ways and Means chair Michael Rodrigues for including the measure in the Senate version of the spending bill and said he remains “hopeful” that the provision can be taken up by the Legislature soon. 

It’s not clear, however, how the calculus would change if the provision is brought back before lawmakers. 

Backers of the stadium have said The Kraft Group would abandon the plan if it doesn’t quickly gain traction on Beacon Hill. 

Bruce Mohl contributed to this report.