What’s Going On With The Belfast City Council (BCC)?
An August 2024 Update
The issue. Protect public access to the nature trails along the Little River. The trails are within the borders of the property Nordic Aquafarms bought. Nordic promised the trails would be protected and Belfast city councilors think they are…but the deeds involved tell a different story.
The problem as we see it. The attorney and city manager are making decisions that support Nordic Aquafarms and the Belfast Water District (BWD) but do not protect the trails. These are decisions that only the City Council – not the city manager or an attorney – has the authority to make.
How we know this. According to Maine law and the City’s charter, only the councilors can make the decisions that city manager Erin Herbig and attorney Kristin Collins recently made regarding the city’s relationship to the Belfast Water District (BWD) and Nordic Aquafarms.
The central question. Are Belfast city councilors putting the interests of BWD and Nordic above those of the residents?
Here is what we have done. Kim Ervin Tucker, attorney for HLHCA, sent attorney Collins a detailed critique of the March 15, 2022 BWD-to-City deed that Collins says will protect the nature trails along the Little River. Tucker pointed out that a March 11, 2022 BWD-to-Nordic deed gave Nordic an easement to develop all the land the District owned…including the nature trails. Tucker found no evidence that the March 11th Nordic easement over the waterfront parcel was ever approved by the BWD Board, Belfast City Council, Belfast’s attorney, or the city manager. But the BWD-to-City sale of the “waterfront parcel” enclosing the nature trails for $100,000 never mentions the easement already granted to Nordic.
The bottom line? Bad. Effectively, the March 11, 2022 BWD-to-Nordic deed removed any protection of the Little River trails for permanent public enjoyment.
Questions we have asked Belfast city councilors.
-- Were you aware of these facts before Ms. Tucker shared them with you?
-- Were you aware of the 2021 and 2024 “Joint defense agreements” between attorney Collins, BWD attorney for BWD, Andy Hamilton, and Nordic attorneys David Kallin and Gavin McCarthy?
-- Do you agree that the Belfast city charter requires the council — not any other city official or professional retained by the city — to make those decisions…and to do so publicly?
-- Will you join us in asking the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) to nullify the easement granted by BWD to Nordic in the March 11, 2022 deed?
The nitty-gritty details. Our petition to MPUC asks the Commission to revoke its approval of the BWD land to Nordic for, among other reasons, the Commission was never told about Nordic’s March 11, 2022 easement on the waterfront parcel, and the easement effectively undercuts the terms of the sale that MPUC approved. Here is the part of our petition that explains this deception.
“For example, the ‘public’ Little River Walking Trails have not been protected in perpetuity. Instead, BWD and Nordic perpetrated the ultimate bait-and-switch by BWD granting Nordic, its successors and assigns, an easement over the Waterfront Parcel that gives Nordic a perpetual right to industrially develop this land – the most sensitive water resource land owned by the BWD – and exclude anyone from the Waterfront Parcel…Cynically, this easement – drafted by Nordic’s counsel on the day of closing on the BWD-to-Nordic deed – was never reviewed nor approved by the BWD Board, the Belfast City Council, the Belfast City Attorney, the Belfast City Manager, abutters, or the public.
“No mention of this easement appears…in the BWD-to-City deed (App. B, Ex. 8) – executed three days after the BWD-to-Nordic deed (App. B, Ex. 7)…
“The reality is that the BDW-to-Nordic deed expressly states that the BWD-to-Nordic deed must be executed before the BWD-to-City deed (conveying the Waterfront Parcel to the City in exchange for $100,000 in taxpayer funds from Belfast taxpayers). The reason for that subterfuge was to ensure that the City took the Waterfront Parcel subject to Nordic’s easement on that land…”
[Source: Motion for Reconsideration and Revocation of 6-8-2018 Order. Docket No. 2018-00043. Pages 7 and 8.]
List of Nordic-related legal issues involving the City of Belfast
[Current as of August 6, 2024]
Challenges to the permits and licenses granted to Nordic in 2020.
Remand actions resulting from the decision in Mabee-I related to permits granted by BEP.
Remand actions resulting from the decision in Mabee-I granted by the City of Belfast.
Slander-of-title suit against Nordic and the Eckrotes.
Damages and compensation suits against Nordic for civil rights violations.
Belfast's defense against Nordic's suit over the Council’s vote to invalidate its eminent domain decision on the Mabee-Grace intertidal zone.
Several cases challenging Belfast’s use of eminent domain recently transferred from Waldo County Superior Court to the Business & Consumer Court.
Issues surrounding preserving the development restrictions on the 12.5-acre parcel within the former BWD HQ property.
Petitions before the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to reject the sale of water resource land to Nordic and restore the City's property rights in the Little River nature trails. This would nullify the easement granted by the Belfast Water District to "Nordic, its successors and assigns" that would allow Nordic to exclude the public from the walking trails and industrialize the land Belfast's citizens paid $100,000 for in March of 2022.
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