After more than six months of feuding over the development of a portion of the Belfast Harbor Walk, it looks as if landowner Paul Naron and city officials have found a way forward.
Naron wants to redevelop the two waterfront properties he purchased two years ago, and needs the Belfast City Council to sign off on his permits in order to do so. But councilors have been steadfast in their desire to have Naron give the city a permanent easement over the portion of the trail that travels through the properties before they grant him his permits.
The two parties have been at an impasse that had no apparent way out. Until Tuesday night, that is, when Naron’s attorney, Joe Baiungo, gave the Belfast City Council some welcome news. The developer is offering to give the city the permanent easement it wants, in exchange for concessions that include the properties’ release from the complicated contract rezoning process as long as future developments are not greater in size than what is currently being proposed.
Councilors met Baiungo’s words with some relief, as well as surprise. After a discussion over the properties seemed to end in a stalemate last month, they expected to vote this week on a recommendation to terminate the contract rezoning process and effectively deny Naron’s application. But shortly before the meeting began, they received a letter with Naron’s counterproposal.
“It all sounds reasonable to me,” Councilor Neal Harkness said after Baiungo spoke. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m absolutely eager to use this as a base to move forward.”
Councilor Mike Hurley, who has focused on the creation of public trails over the last few years that he has been in office, said that he was “really savoring point No. 1” — where Naron has offered to grant the city its easement.
“I think the rest of this framework is really good,” he said.
Wayne Marshall, the director of the Belfast Code and Planning department, said Wednesday that over the next several weeks, city staff will be further discussing the terms with Baiungo and Naron to make sure that all parties can agree on a package that will be presented to the council. He said that all of this started with an amendment to a zoning ordinance that was tabled by the City Council back in February after an ornery meeting in executive session that devolved into a “semi-public shouting match” between councilors and Naron, according to the Republican Journal newspaper.
Since that time, there has been no official action taken, although there have been many discussions. Lots of those have occurred at regular council meetings, though some have happened in executive session, without the reported shouting, and in meetings between Baiungo, Naron and the city’s designated negotiation team of Marshall, City Manager Joe Slocum and Councilor Paul Dean.
“I think that everyone is very close to final terms,” Marshall said. “I don’t think there’s big, broad disagreement over what was suggested.”
Among the details of the newest proposal on the table are that the construction and maintenance of the walkway that crosses his land will be done at the city’s expense and would be subject to his approval of the landscaping, design and layout.
Councilors did seem to raise an eyebrow at one of the points in Naron’s newest counterproposal: that the developer would be granted a “view easement” over city-owned property so that he can be ensured a view of the harbor consistent with the one that he has now. Hurley pointed out that the city owns a wide swath of waterfront that is in Naron’s viewshed, but Baiungo said he didn’t think that should be a sticking point.
“It’s Paul’s intention to be reasonable on this stuff,” the attorney said. “I think we can find a way to work around those.”