The town of Standish received a letter from the Portland Water District last week ordering it to immediately stop maintaining the Standish Boat Launch parking lot.

The new policy, received with stunned disbelief and anger on the part of some Standish officials and residents, also requires Standish to move Northeast Road Extension back into the undisputed 99-foot right-of-way by Feb. 1.

The letter also notified the town of a new permitting policy requiring permits to park in the adjacent parking lot.

The District’s action follows a lower court’s ruling in favor of the District on a point of order in their lawsuit against Standish. A judge determined in November that Standish could not take the District’s land adjacent to the boat launch and Northeast Road Extension by prescriptive rights. Standish is currently appealing the ruling to the Maine Judicial Supreme Court.

In response to the Dec. 2 letter signed by the District’s General Manager Ronald Miller, attorneys for the town have filed a motion for a stay of the court’s decision pending the town’s appeal.

Town Manager Gordon Billington is surprised and affronted by the District’s order limiting access to the area surrounding the popular boat launch.

“I didn’t expect them to do this at this time,” he said. “They need to respect the system and the (appeals) process.”

Francis Brautigan – regional fisheries biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and a proponent of increased access to Maine’s lakes, especially those in heavily populated Southern Maine – said he was under the impression that the District reacted with a cease and desist order because of recent work done to the lot by Standish’s Public Works Department.

“I think what happened is that the town graded the parking area after the (court’s) decision had been rendered,” he said, “and the PWD Board of Trustees viewed it as a disrespectful act and responded.”

But when Billington was given Brautigan’s take on the District’s reaction, he said the town had received no instructions from the District to stop maintaining the lot following the court’s ruling.

“Nothing was communicated verbally or by letter after the lower court’s ruling about maintaining the parking lot,” Billington said. “Absolutely no discussion whatsoever took place after the ruling.”

Standish has maintained the lot for years, providing its residents and many others a safe place to park while snowmobiling, ice fishing or boating. But the District in recent years has been developing stricter land use rules for their properties around the lake.

“We’ve allowed them to use our property – so shame on us,” said Michelle Clements, Portland Water District spokesperson. “Then they (the town of Standish) come along and say, ‘it’s our land,’ and we’re forced to ask them to stop (using it).”

When the town first received the letter, it appeared the lot would remain unplowed and, therefore, inaccessible during the winter months. From his discussions with the District, Brautigan certainly understood that to be the case as recently as Thursday morning.

“We’re trying to work with the District to work something out to provide an interim solution,” Brautigan said. “There were no plans communicated to this office regarding any maintenance to the parking lot by the District. We’re concerned with the loss of access – we would like to have it plowed.”

And certainly many Standish residents, like Timothy Watters of Sebago Lake Village, understood the area would not be maintained.

“It’s really stupid,” Watters said. “It’s been maintained by the town of Standish for years. We didn’t vote to have the boat launch moved and they’ve been at us ever since. The only thing they’re doing is interfering with families having a good time together. I’ve been to (the District’s Trustees) meetings – they don’t even listen to you. They just go because they have to.”

But, according to Clements, the District plowed the parking lot after last Friday’s storm and has decided to continue to maintain it – for now. This is good news for both the Snowseekers’ snowmobiling event and the Rotary Ice Fishing Derby in February.

Tom Noonan, who organizes the fishing derby, says the spot is the second busiest access point on the lake during the event.

“That’s a very popular area,” he said. “I’m in a position where my goal is to raise money for charity through this derby. Obviously, I like the idea of access to the lake.”

But access may be short-lived.

“There’s no guarantee the parking area will stay a parking area,” Clements said.

According to Clements, with the District already keen on their plan to turn the lot into an ecology park, “it’s possible the District would start (construction) right away.”

The ecology park would be a set of culverts and wetlands that the district says would funnel and filter run-off from Sebago Lake Village.

While the town and organizations need to ask for permits, the District will allow individuals to use the parking lot, which will be maintained by the District.

Standish has no plans to maintain it under the District’s conditions, which would require the town to pursue a lease or license from them.

“We are not going to enter into an agreement to maintain it,” Billington said. “It would alter our position with the courts. We feel the public has a right and demonstrated a right over the last 100 years to park there and enjoy it. We see no data that shows us there’s a decline in water quality. In fact, the quality has gone up during the past 10 years.”

But for residents like Watters, the parking lot feud is just the latest incident in the ongoing complaint they’ve had against restrictions placed on the land by the District.

“Go out in Lower Bay in a boat and look back at all the fencing,” Watters said. “It looks like you’re in jail.”

Although the parking lot at the Standish boat launch stretches empty along the shore of Sebago Lake on this day, when ice-fishing season starts the lot will be a hub of activity. The Portland Water District has served the town of Standish with a cease and desist order that prohibits the town from maintaining the lot and orders the town to move the traveled public way off adjacent land by February 1. Staff photo by Peggy Roberts

Copy the Story Link