The Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association, which rents a property on Waldoboro Road in Jefferson, now faces problems with their lease.
The property is designated as seasonal use only, but the DLWA holds a year lease with the property owner, Jefferson resident David Lampton.
The DLWA is renting the marina building at a complex of cottages on Damariscotta Lake. All of the properties in the complex are seasonal use, but the marina is the only property zoned for commercial, rather than residential, use.
The seasonal-use designation is part of the property’s condominium association’s bylaws.
The issue appeared before the Jefferson Board of Selectmen at their Feb. 16 meeting. Lampton, as well as several concerned members of the public, presented their sides of the story to the board.
At that meeting, the board expressed their desire for the issue to be cleared up by the condominium association and the parties involved, rather than the selectmen intervening.
“It sounds like the marina has a use that’s against the condo association’s covenant, but is a good use,” Selectman James Hilton said at the meeting. “Hopefully you can resolve this with the condo association.”
The former owner of the property, Arlene Robinson, was present at the meeting and said she’s bothered by the year-round use. Robinson does not own or live on the property now.
“Whatever the reason, the agreement was that the property would be seasonal use,” Robinson said. “If they’re using it year round, they’re violating the agreement.”
Seasonal-use properties, by law, can only be used for seven months each calendar year., According to Greg Johnston, chairman of the Jefferson Planning Board, who was present at the selectmen’s meeting for other business, there is no legal restriction as to which seven months the property can be used.
As far as the town is concerned, the DLWA has until July – seven months for this calendar year – before they will be in violation of any ordinances, Johnston said.
Until then, it’s a condominium association matter, the board said.
One sticking point for the DLWA is that the septic tank for the property is only certified for seasonal use.
Lampton said he’s had a water meter on the marina since the DLWA moved in and an alarm on the septic to ensure that there weren’t any problems.
When they first moved in, the DLWA was using eight gallons of water per day. Now they use almost none, Lampton said. They have a portable toilet on the site and, as an administrative office for an organization to monitor the environmental quality of the lake, they don’t use much water.
Lampton said a technician with Coffin Engineering told him that the amount of use the DLWA puts on the septic system is well within its capacity.
“In reality, there’s no such thing as a seasonal-use septic system,” Lampton said. “It’s designed to handle the use it gets in the summer when everyone’s around, and it can handle the same amount of use in the winter.”
Lampton, a member of the condominium association, said he’s going to meet with the association in March and discuss how to move forward.
It appears that it’s a matter of changing the condominium association’s bylaws to allow year-round use in the marina, but he doesn’t know how the board will want to proceed, Lampton said.
When the DLWA use of the marina was initially presented to the association, it was well received, Lampton said.
“I think it’s the proper use of the marina – for the community, for the DLWA and for the building,” Lampton said. “I’m trying to get organized and sort this out. However it would work, I want them to have that building.”
Al Railsback, Executive Director of the DLWA, said he hopes that this gets sorted out so they can carry on with work on the lake.
“We like to think these people are better off with us than without us,” Railsback said. “We’re trying not to make an issue out of this right now. We’re just talking to the people involved to try and show them that we’re doing good things on the lake, and hopefully they let us stay.”
