Cape Elizabeth council drops Shore Path route

CAPE ELIZABETH — All the hand-wringing last month over Town Council designs on Robinson Woods have come to naught, following a single meeting with Maine Department of Transportation.

Town Manager Michael McGovern told councilors Monday that state officials have advised that because Robinson Woods is conservation land with a “public, proprietary interest,” any member of the public has standing to challenge the grating of that land to the state.

The council had hoped to divert a portion of the Shore Road Pathway – to be built this fall using a $729,000 state grant – into Robinson Woods, in order to save “about a dozen” trees, preserving the look of the streetscape.

Word of that plan packed a recent council meeting. Although McGovern did not say so out loud, councilors seemed to understand there could be no shortage of potential challenges if the council persisted along recent lines.

“MDOT advised us that could delay the Shore Road [Pathway] project for years,” said McGovern. “They also used the term ‘indefinitely.’

“It’s possible not worth trying to save these few trees when it could jeopardize the whole grant,” said McGovern.

 

At its June 13 meeting, the council voted to seed the local land trust’s purchase of a 63-acre section Robinson Woods with a $350,000 donation. At that time, it also made a "respectful request" to the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust that it enter into negotiations with the council for use of another 80-acre section of Robinson Woods it obtained in 2003.

A faction of the council, led by Anne Swift-Kayatta, wanted to divert a section of the Shore Road Path, due for construction later this year, about 30 feet onto the land trust’s Robinson Woods property. Amending the state’s plan, it was claimed, would allegedly shave $100,000 off the cost of construction by eliminating the need to blast into ledge. Proponents said it also would have saved "about a dozen" trees closest to the street, which some saw as a way to "preserve the character" of Shore Road. 

When the land trust balked at the change, four councilors signed a letter requesting that the full council revisit, and possible take back, the $350,000 donation.

That packed the hall at the council’s July 11 meeting, and the council backed off its threat to pull funding, thanks primarily to an apparent change of position by Councilor Caitlin Jordan.

However, the council continued to engage in “respectful” conversations with the land trust, often in teams of three or less, to avoid triggering Maine’s Freedom of Access laws that would have made the meetings public. Reportedly, the town continually cut the amount of land it was asking the land trust to give over for path construction, down to as little as 220 linear feet.

Councilor James Walsh publicly thanked the land trust for “respectfully listening” to the council’s position on the Path diversion, but seemed to indicate the matter was now closed.

“Even with the landowner, the easement holder and the town all wanting to go forward with this small modification, we’d still have this unknown factor,” he said.

“If we had known four months ago about this [right to challenge], some of what we went though probably wouldn’t have happened,” said Walsh.

“There seems to be a consensus that we do not want to explore this [path move] further,” said Chairman David Sherman.

Meanwhile, construction of the Shore Road Pathway continues to gain momentum.

McGovern says a project agreement has been signed, giving state authorization to embark on final arrangements leading up to construction later this fall. A local grass-roots group, Safe Access for Everyone, has given $104,500 to the town to meet the public match requirement of the state grant.

On Monday, councilors also signed a permanent sidewalk easement and temporary construction easement with Key Bank.

McGovern also said the town is close to obtaining one final, small easement needed from a private property. Those discussions, he said, do not involve a payment for use.