HAMMOND, Maine — As winter has given way to spring, many camp owners are eager and excited to get into their properties.
For a small group of camp owners in Hammond, however, this spring has been met with a different feeling after some received a letter from the Land Use Planning Commission stating their property was part of an illegal subdivision.
A special meeting was held Saturday morning at the Hammond town office to review the matter and give affected camp owners an opportunity to speak with a representative from the LUPC. About 25 people attended the meeting, including Sen. Roger Sherman.
“It was not a (special) town meeting but a meeting to assist the camp owners with their problems with LUPC and clean up an illegal subdivision from the past,” Hammond Town Manager Diane Hines said. “The selectmen wanted to help out by selling more acreage to the owners in violation of too small a lot size and not enough stream frontage.
“The meeting went well for all concerned or at least those who cared to work the problem,” she continued. “This has been a 20-plus-year-old violation and there was a fine attached to the previous property owner (who was foreclosed on) by LURC. The town took no action until the Attorney General’s Office ruled on whether the fine could follow the property or stay with the previous owner.”
At Saturday’s meeting, selectmen Glenn Hines, Robert Luhrs and Stephenie Lively were in attendance as were Tim Cady, a surveyor for Plisga and Day, and Billie MacLean of the LUPC. The group reviewed 10 camps targeted as those having issues that needed to be addressed. Some of those camp owners did not attend Saturday’s meeting, while others whose camps were not discussed were in attendance.
“We’re not here to have any disputes with the Land Use Planning Commission regarding permitting issues,” selectman Glenn Hines said. “All we’re here to do is offer a one-time opportunity to sell additional land on the John McAfee property which foreclosed a year-and-a-half ago.”
According to a letter, addressed to the town of Hammond from the LUPC and obtained by the Houlton Pioneer Times, the main issue involves a large parcel of land that was formerly owned by John W. McAfee. That property was part of an illegal subdivision in which 25 lots were created, which required permits from the agency then known as the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) between 1982 and ‘90. Those permits were never obtained.
In 1991, the state initiated an enforcement action against McAfee. That action resulted in a Superior Court (Kennebec County) entering a judgment against McAfee. The court assessed a $26,000 civil penalty, prohibited him from further subdividing the property, and ordered him to apply for a subdivision permit for the unlawful lots.
McAfee never complied with those requirements, the letter states. No action was ever taken to enforce the judgment. In 2013, the town foreclosed on the remaining 250-acre parcel retained by McAfee.
Many of the lots cited to be in violation of LUPC requirements were for inadequate lot size and required an additional half-acre of land. Glenn Hines said the town would consider selling each of the landowners the half-acre needed for a cost of $3,500.
Because the properties feature vague lot lines, Hines said it was difficult to know exactly where one lot ends and another begins. To fix this problem, he suggested a survey be conducted of the lots in question, but noted the town would not pay for this study. Instead, the lot owners would be solely responsible for the cost of having a land survey done. That cost was estimated at $23,000.
“That (survey) has to happen before we can sell you any additional land,” Hines said. “At this point, we can sell a half-acre to satisfy insufficient lot sizes, because we don’t know where your lots are. The survey is vital.”
If the survey cost were divided equally among the lot owners, it would amount to $2,000 per camp owner.
In an email sent Monday, Diane Hines said the cost figures presented at Saturday’s meeting may not be the actual costs camp owners would have to pay to acquire additional property or hire a surveyor.
Several of the camp owners in question stated Saturday that they would not be able to pay the $2,000 share for a survey. Other camp lots would also need to be sold to one of the abutting landowners to make the lots legal.
Still other lots were cited as needing a building permit for structures that were on their property without the necessary documents.
Glenn Hines stressed it would take all of the lot owners working together to come to an agreement on how to make the subdivision legal.
Some residents questioned what would happen if nothing was done. MacLean stated that if efforts were not made by the lot owners to address the issues, the matter could be referred up the chain to the Attorney General’s office for legal action.
