The Harpswell Select Board has advanced a proposal to improve public access to a state property on Allen Point Road with a quarter-mile of shorefront.
The vote at the Select Board meeting on Thursday, Dec. 14, was a 2-1 split. Board Chair Kevin Johnson and Jane Covey were in favor, while David Chipman dissented. Chipman, who owns one property next to the parcel and co-owns another, joined with other neighbors in opposition to the proposal.
The vote refers the “potential development of access” back to the Harpswell Town Lands Committee. The committee, in turn, will report back to the Select Board. Board members said they expect the committee to return with plans for a parking area and trails.
The property encompasses about 18 acres on the east side of Harpswell Neck, with roughly 1,600 feet of shorefront on Clark Cove. The state bought the land in 1972 for public access and recreation, but never put in a parking area or trail network.
There are no signs to mark the property. Few people know the land is public and even fewer visit, according to neighbors and town officials.
The Town Lands Committee first presented the proposal to the Select Board on Sept. 28. Johnson and Covey expressed support for exploring the idea. The Select Board hosted site walks on Oct. 6 and Nov. 21.
If the town decides to make improvements, it will need to enter a management agreement with the state. The state appears to be open to such an agreement, according to the Town Lands Committee. While the town would oversee the work, federal and state funds might cover the cost.
At the Select Board’s Dec. 14 meeting, supporters and opponents of the proposal largely repeated their positions from the September meeting. Supporters say the proposal presents an opportunity to provide public access to the shore, and to trails for hiking and observing nature, with minimal impact on the environment. Opponents say the property functions as their backyard and encouraging public access would harm the environment and the neighborhood.
“I’ve been approached from both sides of the equation, but there’s far more people interested in us doing something with it down there,” said Johnson, the chair of the Select Board. “I think if the abutters are interested in working with the Town Lands (Committee) to help figure out what we need for parking or trails, I think we can make it something that everybody’s satisfied with.”
He said he envisions a parking area with room for five to six vehicles, and downplayed neighbors’ fears that the property will become a major attraction like Giant’s Stairs or George J. Mitchell Field.
“It’s a long walk down there,” he said about the distance from Allen Point Road to the shore. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Covey said she shares Johnson’s views and supports public access to the shore.
“There are many people in Harpswell who do not have access to the water because they don’t live on the water, and since I’ve lived here, which is about 15 years now, that question of access has been a huge issue in the town,” she said.
Chipman said discussion at a previous meeting caused him to examine his motives for opposition. “I have certainly been thinking that maybe this is a NIMBY thing for me,” he said. NIMBY stands for “not in my backyard” and is a term for people who oppose a development or project in their neighborhood.
However, Chipman said he has discussed the proposal with many people who live outside the neighborhood. “They’re pretty much in agreement that it should just be left alone. It’s not anything that needs to be improved,” he said.
Chipman cited a potential increase in traffic on Allen Point Road among his concerns.
“The enjoyment of a place like this is from the mystery of it and the discovery, and finding out about it and then exploring it,” Chipman said. “But having a parking lot and inviting people there, you get people there from Lewiston, from all over the place. It isn’t just Harpswell people that will be enjoying it. It’ll change not just the land, but the Allen Point Road, considerably.”
“I think we welcome respectful visitors to the land,” Chipman added. “People do go there and if they’re respectful, we’re happy to have them there.”
Chipman said the neighbors think of the property as their backyard, and called it “a very special piece of land.”
“To make so-called improvements for it would be really tasteless and kind of rude, actually,” he said.
Ed Moravick lives on Morse Shore Road, a private road that runs alongside the state land.
“My backyard is the state land,” Moravick said. He predicted that parking and trails would attract visitors who would leave garbage and “human waste,” trespass onto private property, hang out on the beach after dark, and otherwise bring crime and inconvenience to the neighborhood. He said access to Clark Cove would come “at the expense of destroying the natural habitat.”
Another resident of Morse Shore Road, Jim Laughren, expressed concern about the impact of the project on the ecology of the property, which he said includes breeding grounds for “protected ground-nesting bird species” and a “feeding and staging area for migratory birds.”
“Now, if we insert into this relatively pristine, critical habitat, car doors slamming, car locks beeping, radios playing, excited children yelling and running around, dogs barking, and humans wandering through and over these nesting sites, it really doesn’t matter if it’s three or four people a day or 20 or 30 people a day, the indigenous wildlife will react to the degradation of their habitat,” Laughren said. He predicted that much of the wildlife will abandon the area.
“My feeling is if the town truly values conservation and wildlife preservation, this land needs to remain untouched,” Laughren said. “You can’t really have it both ways.”
But Town Lands Committee member Tom Carr said the committee sees a chance to expand access to the shore and make “better use of a piece of property that’s already open to the public.”
“As a person who builds trails, the impact on this property will be minimal,” Carr said.
He noted that, while neighbors describe the land as pristine, it is surrounded by their houses. He said the committee has consulted a wildlife biologist, who was not concerned about the impact of a parking area and trails.
“We’re talking about allowing access to a really special piece of Harpswell,” Carr said.
