CAMDEN, Maine — The developer of a 13-lot residential subdivision faces fines of up to $2,500 per day for failing to properly complete the project approved seven years ago, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the town.
The town claims that Mountain Arrow Village Green Inc. and Mountain Arrow LLC failed to install a permanent sewer connection to the public sewer line on Route 1 and also failed to deposit $18,750 into an escrow account that would have assured the work would be done.
The lawsuit was filed in Rockland District Court two weeks after the Select Board held a closed-door meeting with its attorney to discuss the possible lawsuit. The town asks for the work to be done and for the developer to pay the town’s expenses in bringing the complaint.
Depending on the outcome of the lawsuit, the potential fines are from $100 to $2,500 per day starting from the date of the suit being filed.
The Camden Planning Board approved the Mountain Arrow project in 2008. At that time, the Maine Department of Transportation had a moratorium on cutting into Route 1 utility connections. The planning board approval required that when the moratorium was lifted the developer would connect an appropriately sized line from his development to the town’s sewer line along Route 1.
In the interim, the developer, Trygve Bratz, was allowed to have sewage from the development flow through a lateral line that already served a home on Route 1 he owned at the time.
The town said this line is inadequate to serve the entire development on a long-term basis and risks malfunctions that could create health and environmental problems.
The Route 1 moratorium ended on Dec. 31, 2011.
The lot below the subdivision on Route 1 has been sold by Bratz since the town approved the development and is now being foreclosed on.
Camden Code Enforcement Officer Stephen Wilson said two weeks ago that the subdivision was approved before he became the code officer, and he did not realize until the middle of last year that a permanent connection to the street had not been installed.
Ten homes have been built in the subdivision with assessments from a little more than $400,000 to $3.7 million.
Bratz could not be reached for comment Thursday.