By Cliff White
Staff Writer
A long-running disagreement in Limington has placed neighbors on different sides of a fuzzy line between conservation and development, and despite more than 20 years of battles in the form of words, lawsuits and planning board show-downs, little has been resolved to help make the argument a part of the town’s history instead of its current events.
The area of land involved in the dispute between the border of the Sawyer Mountain Francis Small Heritage Trust’s (FSHT) Sawyer Mountain Highlands preserve and the L-shaped convergence of Governor Black Road and Route 117, north of Limington Village. The disagreement stems from the desire of local landowners to develop their land, and the competing desire of the FSHT to preserve the area in its natural state. Complicating matters is the town’s Resource Conservation Zone (RCZ) in which part of the disputed area lies. The RCZ forbids certain types of development and those interested in other types must receive permission from the town’s planning board.
Doug Hubbard is a Limington resident with a parcel of property north of the Governor Black Road where he has sought to build a house for his retirement. He said his efforts to build on the land have been hindered by delaying and expensive legal battles initiated by the FSHT directors.
“The issue is control,” Hubbard said. “They want to control all the land in that area.”
Hubbard said he supported conservation and even liked the FSHT’s Sawyer Mountain Highlands preserve, but that the issue was an infringement of the rights of holders of private property to do what they wish with their land. Hubbard said he has spent more than $30,000 this year alone in legal fees fighting lawsuits brought by FSHT directors against his proposed development.
“This was going to be a retirement home, but I’m not sure if I’m going to make it in there by the time all the legal affairs get settled and I can finally build,” Hubbard said. “And the other thing is, it’s going to go from being a $500,000 log cabin to a double wide because of the cost of these lawsuits.”
Dick Jarrett, FSHT treasurer, said the trust wasn’t against development as long as it was done legally.
“People have to remember that we spend a lot of money on these lawsuits, too, and that we only do it ensure the undeveloped nature of our own property,” Jarrett said.
Mike Hanson, who also owns property along Governor Black Road, said what he most had issue with was the aggressiveness the FSHT and its officers has pursued legal action against any perceived move toward development near protected land.
“They’re aggressive in the way they get in other people’s business,” Hanson said. “Their goal is to wear you down with a slow process that will cost you lots of money, with the hope that you’ll give up and say, ‘The hell with it.’”
Hanson said while he loved the preserve’s proximity to his house, and said it enhanced the value of his property, he thought it was unfair the FSHT would try so hard to block people from building legally on their own land.
“If the development meets all the laws, the trust shouldn’t have anything to do with it,” Hanson said. “If they have any issues with the development, they can come forward and try to resolve it person to person, instead of just throwing lawsuits at whoever it is that wants to build on the land.”
Jarrett said the trust was not as ill-intentioned as some neighbors thought.
“Our general philosophy is, we want to be good neighbors. We don’t want to escalate these things into what they have sometimes become,” Jarrett said. “Turning the other cheek is what we’ve been doing over and over.”
Pete and Linda Childs own a piece of property on Norton Road abutting FSHT property, and in 2005, they sought to create a seven-lot subdivision. They brought their project before the planning board in October 2005. The Childs sought and succeeded in having the planning board vote to recuse Lorraine Libby, a FSHT director, due to conflict of interest. While the remaining members of the board approved the plan unanimously, and the project was then approved by the zoning board of appeals, the FSHT made a legal challenge to the decision.
“I am a supporter of preservation and the Sawyer Mountain Highland preserve, and I’ve sent the trust money and supported them in the past,” Pete Childs said. “But I don’t agree with how they have treated the people who abut their property. It’s all or nothing with them. If you’re a private property owner, it’s like you have no rights.”
Strapped with mounting legal costs, the Childs eventually dropped their fight and agreed to sell the most problematic parcel to the FSHT. The parcel, which was evaluated to be worth $79,000, was sold to the trust for $45,000, and the Childs will be able to use the difference in prices – $34,000 – as a non-profit contribution on their tax filings, said Pete Childs.
“We’re the losers in this thing,” Pete Childs said. “In order to stop the bleeding, we agreed if they would drop the suit that we would sell the land. It costs too much to defend your rights in this situation. Their strategy was to back us into a corner and have us spend enough money to get us to say ‘uncle.’ And eventually, that’s what we did. It just wasn’t worth it to keep going with the lawsuit, even if we did know we were right.”
Mike Hanson said it was unfortunate there was such a level of disagreement between FSHT directors and private property owners near the Sawyer Mountain preserve. He said he understood the FSHT’s position, but that he disagreed with the methods they have gone about protecting their land.
“I guess maybe I just disagree more than anything with the principle of it, it’s putting people into very tough positions,” Hanson said. “All this money spent on lawyers could have been going to build trails or do maintenance work on their land, and build nice homes on our land. It’s too bad it’s gone this far.”
Peter Zack, president of the FSHT, said his group wanted to improve relations with its neighbors.
“We’ve learned the hard way that we need to be more intentional in speaking directly to people with whom we have differences,” Zack said. “We’re finding by approaching our neighbors and speaking directly with them is really the way to go. Going through the newspaper doesn’t seem to be the right way for us.”