BETHEL – The dual issues of private property rights and public use of private land are colliding over the proposed Jordan Woods subdivision, located between North Road and Androscoggin River near the Gilead-Bethel line. Many abutters and neighbors of the project, who for years have enjoyed the use of the land, are not happy.
“We feel we can’t stop suburbia from coming to North Road,” said Stuart Crocker of Bethel, who, with his wife, owns approximately 50 acres near the proposed development.
The Planning Board will review the project at 7 p.m. tonight.
At the Nov. 9 public hearing, several people voiced their concerns ranging from “loss of rural character” to the loss of a popular recreation trail used for walking, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling, according to a draft of the minutes of the meeting.
“I know it’s their land, and they can do what they want with it,” said Ginny McCoy of Gilead, owner of the abutting 500-acre Chapman Homestead, “but I’m not happy about this and neither are a lot of my neighbors.” She has always believed the homestead had a right of way across that land, originally used to access a ferry that once crossed the river farther down the road, she said.
McCoy and a relative and neighbor, Tammy MacDormand of Gilead, have tried to find proof of the easement at the Registry of Deeds with no luck so far, both women said. “But we’ll try again,” added MacDormand.
Darryl Brown of Main-Land Development Consultants, which is working on the subdivision, made the point at the Nov. 9 meeting that it was incumbent on the applicant to disclose any easements that exist. He said that there are no known easements on the parcel.
He had no further comment Tuesday night on the controversy surrounding the project.
Crocker believes, because of the ferry road’s continuous use since 1805, a case could be made for a “prescriptive use easement,” he said in a recent phone interview.
People familiar with North Road know it for its sweeping pastoral views of the river across rolling hills, separated by sections of wood lots. Few houses have been built along the “river side” of the road. With 11 lots ranging in size from 2.07 to 3.2 acres, five fronting the river, if passed, Jordan Woods would become the second development of its kind along the river side of North Road.
Bethel’s Shoreland Zoning map shows the entire length of North Road in Bethel zoned limited residential, subject to only a 75-foot setback for residences with 100 feet for septic.
Jeff Hutchins of Gilead, the trail master for the Gilead Wild River Riders snowmobile club, noted the irony of Bethel finally completing a vital 25-mile “loop” in the local snowmobile trail system with the new snowmobile and foot bridge across the Androscoggin River, only to have this project break the loop.
“They did say they would shut (the trail) down after this winter,” said Hutchins. “I’m hoping they’ll have a change of heart,” he added.
“I sympathize with people’s concerns about protecting the nature of the area,” said Allen Cressy, chairman of the Bethel Planning Board, but he added that the Planning Board has specific “rules of procedure” it must follow. “I’m hoping the community will become more proactive in their concerns,” he said.
Land must meet at least one of five criteria used by the DEP to justify placing it under the state’s resource protection guidelines, which require a 250-foot setback from a river explained Michael Morse, assistant shoreland zoning coordinator for the DEP, in a telephone interview.
Those criteria can be found at http://www.state.me.us/dep/blwq/docstand/szpage.htm#rule. If there is recent evidence that the town’s shoreland map is inappropriate, he said, the DEP would recommend the town review its map.
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