Accessing the Maine Coast

Lamoine Case Study

Background
The town of Lamoine is situated on the Jordan River where it empties into Frenchman Bay. Since 2010, the town has been a part of a joint Regional Shellfish Conservation Ordinance along with the towns of Ellsworth, Franklin, Hancock, Sorrento, Sullivan, and Trenton. As is the case in many coastal communities, commercial users of the intertidal, including clam and worm harvesters, have historically had informal handshake agreements with coastal landowners that enables them physical access to coastal spaces. The 1990s brought a wave of new development to Lamoine’s coast, and clammers and wormers quickly saw many of the access points they had used in the past change owners.
 
A Unique Approach to Access Preservation
When a new development was proposed to the municipal Planning Board, members saw an opportunity to preserve access points to the intertidal area for commercial and recreational users. Lamoine’s Building and Land Use Ordinance section K states that the municipal Planning Board “may request that reserved land… be dedicated to the Town for open space and public use” and that they “may require the preservation of… physical or visual access to the shoreline”. This language, along with a desire of the Planning and Selectman Boards to preserve coastal access, led to the use of these ordinances that have not always been enforced in the past. 
When the new development was first proposed to the Planning Board, they entered negotiations with the developer by outlining the enforceable elements of ordinances. The developer came back to the table willing to work with the Planning Board to create public space that would enable and preserve coastal access. The developer agreed to create a walking path from the road to the shore and eight public parking spots. This space is public and therefore can be used by recreational and commercial intertidal users.
 
Takeaways
Many municipalities have ordinances that pertain to land development and use in place already. The Lamoine Planning Board encourages other municipalities to investigate the language that they already have on the books to see what negotiations the language enables. Additionally, they encourage municipalities and Planning Boards to enter negotiations from a place of strength and to not be afraid to be firm in enforcing ordinance.

LUbec case study

Lubec, Maine is located downeast and has long been known as a fishing town. Lubec’s fleet of wild clam harvesters have been increasingly experiencing losses of access, linked to changes in waterfront property ownership. The Lubec shellfish committee has been working to identify the best ways to ensure that harvesters have reliable, safe access points that don’t require harvesters to travel on foot over long distances. The further that harvesters have to drag clam laden sleds, the less time they have to take advantage of clam flats exposed by low tide, and the more prone harvesters are to injuries that can damage their livelihoods.

One way that Lubec has been exploring securing access is for the town to buy a small strip of land along the top of the intertidal zone that runs in parallel to the mean low water mark. This shift could change a property’s legal designation from “waterfront” to “waterview.” The property would still be highly desirable, but the landowner would know that a publicly accessible path runs along their property line. This path would create an access point for harvesters and other waterfront users to be able to access the intertidal zone long-term.

harpswell case study

Harpswell, Maine is a series of peninsulas that jut into Caso Bay in Southern Maine. Wild intertidal shellfish harvesters, particularly clam harvesters have been experiencing a loss of walk-in access to productive mudflats as coastal property has changed hands. Like anywhere else, access paths that were once secured through “handshake agreements” between harvesters and former landowners can dissolve when new landowners are not aware of the agreements. New landowners may also not understand that clam harvesters have a legal right to fish in the intertidal zone, even though it might be private property.

After experiencing increasing losses of access, the Harpswell Marine Resources Committee decided to throw a landowner appreciation event. This event brought together municipal staff and volunteers, local harvesters, and coastal land owners. Local harvesters provided clams for the event and steamers and chowder were served. This event created a way for coastal landowners to better understand the roles of harvesters in the community and the -nature of access to the flats. Conversations over chowder have turned into relationships that led to the securing of 11 new access points along the Harpswell coast as a result of the last 4 years of landowner appreciation events.

The Marine Resources committee plans to hold more landowner appreciation events and to distribute a recent publication called The Scuttlebutt. This publication is specifically for new coastal landowners, especially those from away. It introduces landowners to the sights, sounds, smells, and culture of an active working waterfront.