Nordic loses another round: surveyor settles Little River boundary dispute
[Thursday, October 31, 2024. Belfast, Maine.] Yesterday, surveyor Robert Yarumian sent his report on the location of Belfast's boundary at the mouth of the Little River. Surveyor Yarumian placed the location of Belfast's 1813 boundary in exactly the same spot as HLH surveyor, Don Richards, placed it in 2019. (WCRD Plan Book 24, Pages 34 and 54.) His conclusion means that a portion of the intertidal land Belfast attempted to take by eminent domain on August 12, 2021 was located outside the municipal boundaries of the city.
Surveyor Yarumian concluded that there is a "gore" between Northport's municipal boundary as defined in a 1795 statute and the 1813 Belfast municipal boundary from the mouth of the Little River due east into Belfast Bay. Thus, the portion of intertidal land located outside Belfast's boundary that the City erroneously took by condemnation in 2021 is not in Northport, but in a sort of "no man's land" between the boundaries of the two municipalities.
All of this is bad news for Nordic Aquafarms, Inc. for several reasons:
(1) Belfast has no legal capacity to take the intertidal land outside its boundary and therefore could not grant Nordic an easement to use that land;
(2) The September 3, 2021 City-to-Nordic easement does not give Nordic any "title, right, or interest" (TRI) in all the intertidal land below the former Eckrote property; and
(3) Yarumian's finding knocks the props out from under a Nordic complaint before the judiciary's Business & Consumer Docket (BCD-APP-2024-00010) seeking a court order to use that easement.
In her report to the HLH Board of Directors this afternoon, attorney Kim Ervin Tucker said: "In sum, Nordic cannot claim TRI in all of the intertidal land adjacent to the former Eckrote Lot (Belfast Tax Map 29, Lot 36) pursuant to the 9-3-2021 City-to-Nordic easement, because the City was without the legal capacity to take intertidal land outside its municipal boundaries. Nor could it grant Nordic an easement to use intertidal land outside Belfast's boundaries."
Tucker went on to describe the strength of our protection over the intertidal lands: "Additionally, whether the intertidal land adjacent to Lot 36 is within Belfast, a gore, or Northport, all of that intertidal land is covered by the 4-29-2019 conservation easement (WCRD Book 4367, Page 273), established by Mabee-Grace and held by HLH. Pursuant to the 3–2-2022 Stipulated Judgment in favor of the Attorney General in RE-2019-18 (now BCD-REA-2024-00007), the Conservation Easement was not amended or terminated by the City's 8-12-2021 Condemnation Order. The Yarumian survey and the 5-7-2024 City Order "repealing" and "vacating" the 8-12-2021 Condemnation Order make clear that Nordic cannot claim TRI in all of the intertidal land adjacent to the former Eckrote Lot."
The Belfast City Council will consider Yarumian's survey report at its regular council meeting on November 6th. The Nortport Board of Selectmen will do the same at its November 12th meeting.
A copy of surveyor Yarumian's report can be found below.
For more information contact:
Andrew Stevenson, Secretary
Friends of Harriet L. Hartley (HLH) Conservation Area
703-407-2968