CAMDEN, Maine — The town has reached a tentative agreement that would end a lawsuit against a land developer over an inadequate sewer line.
The agreement calls for a proper sewer line to be installed from the 13-lot Mountain Arrow residential development off Route 1 to the town’s main line along that highway by June 15, according to town attorney William Kelly. The attorney said, however, that he expects the work will be done by June 1.
The town has sought a change in the connections because there have been a couple of failures in the current line that serves the development, posing environmental and health hazards.
The Maine Department of Transportation had a moratorium on cutting into Route 1 for utility connections when the Camden Planning Board approved the Mountain Arrow project in 2008. Thus the planning board allowed developer Trygve Bratz to have sewage from the development flow through a small lateral line that already served a single home at the entrance to the development on Route 1. The board’s approval, however, required that when the moratorium was lifted — which occurred in 2011 — the developer would connect an appropriately sized line.
That did not happen, however, the town said.
Ten homes have been built in the subdivision with assessments from a little more than $400,000 to $3.7 million.
During a hearing on the lawsuit in Rockland District Court on Thursday afternoon, Kelly explained the tentative consent agreement to Judge Susan Sparaco. Bratz is out of the country and the consent agreement is expected to be finalized upon his return, according to the town attorney.
The town’s lawsuit against Bratz would be dismissed once the sewer work is done.