The Portland Water District’s Board of Trustees responded to a recent Standish Town Council decision to widen the road leading to the town’s boat launch by voting unanimously Monday to appeal the widening in Superior Court.
The Northeast Road Extension, which leads from Route 35 to the boat launch in Sebago Lake Village, has been part of an ongoing dispute between the district and the town. Standish claims that Northeast Road Extension should be eight rods wide, or 132 feet, citing early town maps showing the road as eight rods wide, as originally laid out by town proprietors in 1767. The water district maintains the road should be 99 feet wide, or six rods. The district bases this on a 1933 decision by the Cumberland County Commissioners, with the additional two rods belonging to the district.
The district’s vote to appeal came after the court rejected its request for an injunction that would have prevented the Standish council from voting on the range road at its meeting on Mar. 14.
“The board felt we got backed into a corner,” said President of the Trustees Bill Lunt. “We needed to protect ourselves on appeal.”
Last November, the Cumberland County Superior Court ruled that Standish could not take district land surrounding the boat launch by prescriptive rights. Now, the district and the town are awaiting a decision by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Standish’s appeal of that ruling.
But after the lower court ruled in favor of the district, the district slapped Standish with a cease and desist order, preventing them from maintaining the land adjacent to the boat launch and ordering them to move the road to the 99 foot right-of-way by Feb. 1 of this year.
The town decided their only recourse was to vote to accept the range road before performing the required work.
But, in a recent interview, Lunt alluded to the district’s offer, before the vote was taken, to hold off on their order to move the road until the lawsuit was settled. Standish declined.
“I think the only thing we can do now is get the law court to make the decision one way or the other,” Lunt said. “Then the district and the town will have to deal with the issues.”
During Monday’s meeting, Standish Councilor Jeffrey Richardson addressed the trustees. While he said he didn’t feel the board understood that the land in question lies outside of the watershed, he said they listened to what he had to say.
“I thought it was a pretty good give and take,” Richardson said. “They (the trustees) were respectful and genuinely kind to me.”
Richardson says the case brings a new problem before the courts.
“The point of law regarding quasi-municipalities having the same law as federal and local governments has never been addressed by courts before – let the Legislature decide,” he suggested.
In a second, separate development involving the district and the town of Standish, three additional quasi-municipal entities have motioned to file a brief of amicus curiae.
Amicus curiae literally means “friend of the court.” By filing an amicus brief, the Southern Maine Regional Water Council, the Maine Water Utilities Association and the Maine Wastewater Control Association are saying the ruling in the case may affect their interests. It does not mean they are a part of the trial.
Part of their motion reads: “The appellant, Town of Standish, has alleged in its brief that the doctrine of nullum tempus, which protects land used for public purposes from claims of adverse possession and easement by prescription, should not protect land owned by quasi-municipal entities…If the Town prevails on this issue, land owned by the Amicus Parties for watershed protection and utility operations would be at risk.”
The Attorney General’s Office has announced its plan to file an amicus brief siding with the water district, as well.
Chuck Dow is the spokesperson for the Augusta office. He is worried that, if Standish wins the appeal, precedent would be set enabling other towns to use prescriptive rights to take land from quasi-municipalities, including other water districts in the state.
“The decision to file the amicus brief was made after we read the town’s brief that challenges the legal doctrine that protects public land from prescriptive rights that may be acquired by private parties,” he said. “We’re weighing in to protect the state’s interest without being a party in the case.”
This decision by the Attorney General’s Office has Town Manager Gordon Billington concerned about the guarantee from the state that the Standish boat launch would remain open even after the Department of Conservation develops a new boat launch in another area of Standish. Although Billington was told a letter was drafted, it has yet to come across his desk.
A lot is riding on the outcome of the lawsuit, which everyone agrees will not be settled any time soon.
“Whichever way this goes,” Lunt said, “the ramifications are big.”
But Lunt disagrees with the notion that there are bad feelings between Standish and the district.
“There isn’t that much bad feeling,” he said. “There’s just a tremendous difference of opinion.”
The Portland Water District has filed a lawsuit to stop the town of Standish’s bid to widen the access road to the Standish Boat Launch, shown above.Send questions/comments to the editors.
