Staff Writer

Beach access and a new stretch of riverfront land will be tangible results of a land purchase the Town Council approved March 17.

Councilors unanimously approved spending more than $637,000 to buy five parcels of land from the heirs of landowner Jimmy Vasile. The money will be combined with funds from the Land for Maine’s Future bond fund for the $1.27 million purchase price.

Three of the parcels comprise about 10 acres of wooded land between the Nonesuch River and Mussey Road near Eight Corners Primary School.

The remaining two parcels, considered by Town Manager Tom Hall and councilors including Michael Wood and Karen D’Andrea to be of more importance, comprise a parking area off Ocean Avenue in Higgins Beach.

The lot, currently leased to owners of Higgins Beach Inn, is the primary parking spot for visitors to Higgins Beach when on-street parking is prohibited from April 1 to Oct. 1.

The closing date for the land purchase is expected to be March 31 according to the purchase and sales agreement. However, Hall said the lease will not expire until April 30, 2011.

Visitors were charged $10 to the use lot last summer, the same price visitors to Scarborough beaches are charged to park in lots at Pine Point and Ferry beaches from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It has not been determined what fees may be charged at Higgins Beach when the lease expires.

Ownership alone pleased Wood, D’Andrea and councilor Judith Roy because it ensures public access to Higgins Beach for future generations.

Buying the parking lot delighted Janice Parente, a member of the local chapter of Surfriders Foundation, because she said “parking is a finite resource and the spots are an asset to the town.”

Parente said Higgins Beach is a favored spot for the 140 local members of Surfriders and the organization is about halfway to raising $25,000 to help establish a fund to maintain the lot once it is town-owned.

Councilor Shawn Babine said using bonds instead of buying the land with available town money is justified because of the benefit to future generations.

Babine was answering the objections of Board of Education member Bob Mitchell, who said using bonds for a purchase that amounts to 1 percent of town revenues made poor business sense.

“Why are we bonding everything that walks by here?” Mitchell asked.

The river front acreage are parcels Wood said “were thrown into the deal,” but were also called valuable by Hall because they are a buffer against further development along the Nonesuch River and can provide land to help reconfigure the intersection of Mussey and Payne roads.

In recommending the town buy the land, members of the Scarborough Parks and Land Conservation Board with Suzanne A. Foley-Ferguson as its chairman said the acreage has potential as park lands while helping preserve wildlife habitats.

The land deal was arranged with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.

Terry Turner, a project planner with the trust, said the trust helps close sales of private land to public entities by providing the short-term funding to be repaid through bond sales, with sales agreements outlining specific uses or land preservation as part of the deal.