SACO, Maine — It’s an age-old question: Who owns the Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco and Biddeford?
Church officials are going to look into it once and for all, to get the answer to the question before moving forward with plans to renovate the property.
In 1825, town leaders invited the church to build a place of worship on city land. Construction began that year on a meeting house at the southern end of Pepperell Park, and the church was completed in 1827.
In 1867, the church received permission to build a parish hall next to the church. In the 1970s a connector was built between the buildings.
Over the years, attorneys hired by the church have searched for a title to the property but have been unsuccessful.
Anne Dobson, vice president of the church’s board of directors, said at a Saco City Council workshop on Monday that on-street parking by the church is limited, and the church would like to create a small parking lot next to the church that would provide parking that’s more accessible for some of the congregation’s aging members.
Dobson said before moving forward with the project, the church would like to establish who owns the property and how much land it can use.
“What are we looking for is some indication of what we can do,” she said.
“It’s a very unique situation,” city attorney Tim Murphy said. He said he believed the city owned the land the church was on. If that was the case, he said he wasn’t sure what procedure the city could use if it chose to hand the property over to the church.
“This is a very long-established problem,” Murphy said. He said he was glad the issue had been brought up for discussion to try rectify it.
“I think as a community we ought to decide and put it to rest,” Mayor Roland “Ron” Michaud said.
Michaud noted that it was the city that asked the church to build a meeting house at that location, and if city procedure made it difficult to give ownership of the property to the church, it could consider granting the church a perpetual easement.
The matter will be discussed again at a City Council workshop in February.