NORWAY – Town officials could take the Opera House by eminent domain, but there is a significant risk that a court could make the town pay much more than town officials believe the building is worth, the town’s attorney has said.

“The town says it’s worth $1 million; the building owner says it’s worth $10 million. The court says the owner’s right and now we owe $10 million,” town Attorney Geoff Hole told about 35 people who came to hear him outline options the town could take to address privately-owned unsafe, unhealthy or dilapidated buildings.

“There’s a real danger,” Hole said, stressing that in any eminent domain taking, the town must hire experts to get an accurate building appraisal. “You don’t know until the judge says what it is.”

While Hole would not address specific buildings like the Opera House and the Gingerbread House, two privately-owned historic downtown properties that the town may lose either through neglect or failure to act to preserve them, he did say there are only a few steps the town can take to address the problems.

Besides taking a building by eminent domain, officials may also use the state’s dangerous building statute either through a hearing process with the selectmen or going to court if the building presents an immediate danger. Or, if a town has adopted a community development statute, it might work at resolving issues through that planning process.

The town faces a December deadline to decide what, if anything, it will do with the so-called Gingerbread House on Main Street. The building has been offered to the town with the caveat that it be moved.

The Opera House remains vacant, and despite assurances in early August from its owner, Barry Mazzaglia, of New Hampshire, that construction crews would be working on the building in a few weeks, no work has begun.

Some officials have said the building will not survive another heavy snow winter and that attempts to work with the owner have not been successful.

Hole said if the town chooses to take a property by eminent domain, the court will set the price for a property if the owner doesn’t accept what the town is offering. Legal costs and appraisal costs can be very significant as well, Hole said.

“In eminent domain, everyone pays their own way,” he said. The process could take several months before getting into the courts and several more months after that if the court’s decision is appealed to the Supreme Court by either side.

Eminent domain is a step that is not taken very often, said Hole, who sees one occur about every three or four years.

A town could also go to court and get a temporary injunction if it can get affidavits from the fire department, building inspector and other officials stating that the building presents a public danger, Hole said. Selectmen said a hearing would be held within a couple of weeks.

The town could also go to court without proper notification to the owner and ask the judge to take immediate action. The town could then take action on the building, including using its own money to make repairs. But, he warned, the risk is when the case comes to the judge, there might be a change with the final judgment leaving the town vulnerable.

“It’s a fairly complex area,” according to Hole, who said abandoned buildings are a growing problem across the state.