Maine Attorney General to Belfast: “The law is clear.”

Earlier today the City of Belfast acknowledged that it cannot use its powers of eminent domain to sidestep the terms of an existing conservation easement. The City agreed to the Attorney General’s (AG) stipulation that the only way to amend or terminate a conservation easement is through the state’s conservation easement statute. Once that was accepted, the AG dropped a second claim against the City and Belfast dropped a counterclaim. Assistant Attorney General Scott Boak filed the agreements in Waldo County Superior Court.

The City’s failed legal maneuver was part of its campaign to aid Nordic Aquafarms, Inc.  push through its plans for a 33,000 metric ton fish-raising facility in Belfast. Opponents to the Nordic plan assert that their conservation easement on a swath of intertidal mudflats prevents Nordic from realizing its dream. Ownership of the mudflats and the extent of that easement are still in the courts.

It is ironic that the City’s attorneys were told in July 2021 that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) would not support a premature move to circumvent the conservation easement process, yet the city council chose to ignore that warning. The recent agreement finally puts to rest the City Council actions to push forward a doomed claim of eminent domain.