The South Portland Planning Board is considering how to
deal with 47 tax-acquired properties, dating back as early as 1923
SOUTH PORTLAND — It has the second-highest population density in
Maine, so, it might be surprising to hear that South Portland is a city rich in
land – so rich, in fact, that it’s thinking of putting some of it up for sale.
Of course, one reason the city is land rich is
because some of its residents are cash poor.
At its most recent meeting, the South Portland
Planning Board spent 90 minutes mulling a list of 47 lots, totaling 11 acres,
that the city has taken for back taxes, some as far back as 1923. The lots have
a combined assessed value of $1.25 million.
A second workshop is scheduled for June 12, at
which time the seven-member board will begin making recommendations on what to
do with the properties, all but two of which are vacant lots.
A spreadsheet reviewed by planners contained
recommendations from Assistant City Manager Erik Carson – who sidelines as
South Portland’s economic development director – and Pat Doucette, the
city’s code enforcement officer. As many as 28 house lots can be sold off from
the city-owned land, while another 16 parcels, too small to build on, could be
offered to abutting landowners.
According to Assistant City Planner Stephen
Puleo, the first of those sales could happen as soon as September or October,
pending a final decision by the City Council on Planning Board recommendations.
Many of the properties are the final lots in
subdivisions, which, after failing to sell, eventually ended up in city hands.
Others include unbuilt streets in those subdivisions –so-called “paper
roads” – that could become lots of record with a little paperwork. Other lots
were automatically acquired after being effectively abandoned by the estates of
deceased residents.
“It’s a case where none of the decedents wanted
it, it never got sold, the estate never paid the taxes, and, eventually, it
fell to the city,” Puleo said in an interview last week.
There is not particular pattern to the lots, in
either size or location.
“They’re all over the city, really,” said Puleo.
“What people don’t always understand is that were a lot of subdivisions that
were laid out and recorded that may not meet current standards, some that are
only 50 feet by 100 feet. Those are lots of record that can be built on.”
Other lots are mysteries, the apparent leftovers
of water easements and drainage swells, many of which have belonged to the city
since the 1930s and 1940s. In many cases, these lots, some only about 10 feet
wide, run between and behind houses, where they are encumbered by fences, and
maintained by some or all of the neighboring property owners.
“In many cases, those people may be surprised to
learn they do no actually own that land,” said City Planner Tex Haeuser.
More surprising might be what comes after these
residents refuse a city offer to buy land they are already using, and may have
assumed they owned – an eviction notice.
“If an abutter is using it and does not wish to
purchase [the property], he should be notified that he is trespassing,” wrote
Doucette of several lots on her list of recommendations.
Although it appears there is revenue to be had,
City Manager Jim Gailey said last week that he did not ask planners to take a
look at the lots simply to add to city coffers. It was more a matter of
housekeeping, he said.
Although the city finance department provides
the Planning Board with a list of tax-acquired property each year, the board
has not sent the council a list of its ideas for disposition since 2001. The
board last reviewed some of the 47 lots 10 or 20 years before that.
Generally, the city “bends over backwards,” said
Gailey, to make payment plan arrangements with homeowners, even after formal
foreclosure. A three-unit building at 357 Broadway toured by the councilors May
21 is one of the rare instances in recent years in which the city has taken a
property. The council is slated to decide at its June 4 meeting what to do with
that empty building, with a public auction being chief among the possibilities.
The difference between that lot and the 47
currently under review, Haeuser said, is that all but two among them are vacant
lots, a few of which are “landlocked” with no access to an existing city
street.
In many cases, Puleo said, those lots were once
deemed valuable as open space, and retained by the city. That’s partly because
as the city has developed over the decades, environmental impacts have been
created that did not necessarily exist when a subdivision was laid out. But, he
added, when reviewing the properties one-by-one with the Planning Board, each
one should be looked at based on the needs of both the city, the taxpayers and
the environment.
“If you don’t re-look at things, then you start
to build up this big portfolio of properties,” said Puleo. “That’s sort of what
we have now and we’ve reached kind of a critical mass where decisions need to
be made at a higher level than previously, when, maybe, only an open space
committee looked at it.”
However, one thing Puleo and Gailey agree on is
that the city does not intend to flood the market.
“If there are a number of properties that are to
be put out to bid, there is a lot of work to be done, so it will take time,”
said Puleo.
A list of tax-acquired property up for review in South Portland, many of which might be offered to the public as soon as this fall:
Address Square Feet Assessed Value
9 Grove Ave. 5,663 $177,400
74 Cash St. 15,856 $128,700
25 Willard St. 5,550 $118,700
35 Southeast Road 96,703 $75,400
31 Boothby Ave. 11,702 $68,300
120 Evans St. 9,120 $56,700
37 Orlando St. 5,500 $53,800
34 Daytona St. 5,500 $53,800
290 Ocean St. 5,000 $53,600
183R Evans St. 10,000 $53,000
2 Rossetti Ave. 4,434 $37,500
34 Roosevelt St. 5,000 $35,300
14 Bowdoin Ave. 4,008 $33,200
25 Colonial Ave. 10,000 $30,300
11 Wylie St. 30,536 $29,900
36 Pleasant Ave. 3,441 $27,300
1 Park Ave. 1,830 $23,300
40 Noyes St. 80,150 $21,900
71 Sawyer St. 6,142 $17,800
30 Noyes St. 17,380 $16,000
17R Paddock Place 47,916 $15,000
48 Calais St. 3,720 $13,700
274R Pleasant Ave. 4,700 $12,800
5 Mussey St. 3,515 $8,500
780 Sawyer St. 12,676 $7,900
128 Jordan Ave. 4,560 $7,700
26 Walnut St. 2,700 $7,400
110 School St. 4,579 $7,000
21 Dresser Road 3,572 $6,900
14 Dresser Road 2,000 $5,800
12 Holden St. 3,300 $5,400
81 Sunset Ave. 2,500 $5,400
231 Margaret St. 6,241 $3,900
228 Margaret St. 6,775 $3,900
62 Robert Mills Road 1,278 $3,900
24R Noyes Road 1,278 $3,900
9 Romano Road 2,070 $3,000
14 Brigham St. 2,047 $2,800
1932 Broadway 2,460 $2,700
68 Hillcrest Ave. 1,525 $2,600
45 Norman St. 10,200 $1,900
35 Norman St. 5,000 $1,800
20 Chestnut St. 1,176 $1,200
115 Simmons Road 250 $700
176 Sawyer St. 497 $600
58 Skillings St. 316 $400
2 Glendale Rd. 50 $100
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