BATH, Maine— The Bath City Council voted 5-2 Wednesday to allow an elderly couple to purchase land adjoining their Mallard Road property to settle code violations created because two of their buildings are on city property.
The panel also unofficially supported selling a sliver of city-owned Winter Street Court property to settle another compliance issue, and approved a liquor license for the Winnegance General Store.
The council had voted 7-1 in February to fine Mardouni and Esther Sharrigan, who own property at 107 Mallard Road, $31,200 for code violations going back 26 years. The couple violated the city code by building two structures on city land — now the adjoining Butler Head preserve — and partly on their own property.
The Sharrigans were granted an easement for less than an acre in 1989 to install a septic system. They have said they wanted to settle those long-standing violations and comply with the code, and have hoped to purchase most of that easement and a small non-easement area, and release the rest back to the city.
Councilor Steve Brackett said he favored the agreement, which requires the Sharrigans to pay $48,000. “I think it reaches a fair settlement to both sides and will rid us of the issue,” he said.
Councilor David Sinclair, who voted with fellow Councilor Sean Paulhus against the agreement, disagreed with Brackett that the settlement was fair.
“I think it’s patently unfair to those great plurality of citizens who obey the laws … who respect their neighbors, in the course of respecting their own boundaries, and who don’t come before us asking for special dispensation after multiple decades of flagrantly abusing the process.”
Brackett noted that the city also stood to shoulder some blame, for the matter being allowed to last as long as it had.
Winter Street Court
The council also expressed support for, but took no official action on, selling a 480-square-foot piece of city-owned land on Winter Street Court to settle another compliance issue.
While the city purchased the parcel in 1996 to create a turnaround at the end of the street for snowplows, it was never used for that purpose, and the public works director has said the city has no reason to hang onto it, City Solicitor Roger Therriault has said.
The land has been wanted by two abutters: Toader Serban, who owns 12 and 14 Winter Street Court, and Andrea DiBenedetto of 16 Winter Street Court. With the city’s permission, DiBenedetto in the mid-1990s erected a fence on the property, where she parks, according to Community Development Director Scott LaFlamme.
Meanwhile, a deck Serban built is too close to the property line and fails to meet setback requirements. It is therefore in violation of the city code, Therriault wrote in an Aug. 28 memo.
Serban has said he wants the parcel because owning it would bring his deck into compliance; otherwise he may have to dismantle the structure.
Attempts by the two abutters to reconcile the matter have been unsuccessful, and the city tabled the matter last month, wanting to hear more from DiBenedetto.
The City Council voted Wednesday to establish an order conveying the land to Serban with an easement for DiBenedetto, which would allow her to leave her fence and parking area as is.
DiBenedetto stated the importance of being able to maintain both. Serban expressed reluctance with having to pay for the land while allowing her the fence and parking space, mentioning that he was thinking about taking down the deck.
Sinclair acknowledged that the situation has been difficult for both parties, noting that the council did not want to make one or the other the winner, but both of them, through the proposed compromise, “in that each of you would be able to continue to use the space exactly as you are today.”
Therriault said if nothing is done, the city could revoke DiBenedetto’s ability to maintain the fence and park on the property, and proceed against Serban for his code violation.
“If you two can’t figure this out, that’s where we’re headed,” he said. “Nobody’s going to be happy with that.”
The council has not yet addressed a sale price for the parcel. City Manager Bill Giroux said he could draft an order on the disposition of the land, with Serban as the owner and DiBenedetto having the easement, and meet with them on its terms. The matter would then return to the council for a vote.
Sinclair suggested that it be stated in that order “that if either of them declines the opportunity to purchase (the parcel or the easement) at whatever price or prices we have set, then the other party will be granted the opportunity to simply buy the parcel outright, at the sum of those two prices.”
Councilor Andrew Winglass agreed with that direction, noting that “this item has been on the docket here for too many years, for too many times, in too many different versions. I think that the council is trying to satisfy both parties in this instance. … The city does not want this land, so one way or another this is going.”