By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

A proposed land swap agreement of a small strip of land in Pine Point has become the scourge of an entire area.

Pine Point residents jammed into council chambers during the Scarborough Town Council meeting Wednesday night speaking their minds far into the evening. Residents spoke of a swapping land abutting the Lighthouse Motel on Depot Street at the end of Pine Point Road with the town to give better access to the beach.

 According to drawings presented at the meeting, the town currently owns a corridor directly abutting the motel building, extending to the water mark on Pine Point Beach. The corridor is also sandwiched by property owned by Peter and Nicholas Truman, who own the Lighthouse Motel. The Trumans also own another piece of land on the other side of the corridor, which again leads to the beach.

The proposed concept of the land swap would involve widening the corridor, giving better access for residents toward the beach, as well as eliminating 300 feet of Pine Point Road, with the town owning the right of way to the beach.

In a June 19 Scarborough Leader story, Town Manager Tom Hall said the plan made sense for both the Trumans and the town.

“It would enable us to build a drop-off area and enhance access to the beach,” Hall said. “It’s a less than perfect situation but it makes a lot of sense for [the Trumans] to make their own lots contiguous.”

Pine Point residents responded during the public hearing with their own proposal for Depot Street. John Thurlow, legal counsel to the Pine Point Residents Association, suggested “cutting” the current parking strip on Depot Street, making a large portion of the strip closest to the beach set in front of the motel on the other side of Depot Street, as a way to broaden the street. The other half of the parking strip would remain closed to the opening of the street, next to Pine Point Road.

After Thurlow’s presentation, Gene Libby, legal counsel for the Trumans, tried to deflect residents concerns during his presentation.

Libby said he has a “personal connection” to the area, having been a lobsterman in the Blue Point area from 1961 to 1978. He said he knew residents’ connection to the area is “emotional and passionate,” but asked the crowd to eliminate those feelings for a clearer perspective of the proposed swap.

Libby gave reasons during his presentation regarding how the swap worked for both the Trumans and the town. He said by going through with the swap, the Trumans were losing five parking spaces. However, the swap would help them consolidate parking at the motel and eliminate pedestrian traffic from the motel.

 Libby said the swap would give the town land abutting Claudia Way, provide a safer pedestrian drop-off area, as well as provide a continuous walking path to the beach from Pine Point Road.

Following the presentation, a line of both Pine Point and non-Pine Point residents took turns speaking their minds on the topic. Maine Rep. Sean Flaherty said he was not in favor of the land swap, asking the council to use a more public process to make a better decision on what to do with the land.

“If the purpose is to improve public access, we don’t have a plan yet,” he said.

Kevin McQuinn, owner of the Landing at Pine Point, asked the council to go back to a third party engineer and find a way to do something with the dune grass area next to motel on the beach, saying the council was taking a “short sided” approach to the land swap.

Susan Hamel, who said she grew up in the Pine Point area, asked the council to be more fiscally responsible with the land and said the swap was benefiting the landowners but not the town of Scarborough.

“If you need to get rid of land, for God sake sell it, don’t give it away.”

As of press time on Wednesday night, the council had not yet made a decision on the issue.

Staff writer Dave Dyer can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 219.