Residents joined the Bremen Conservation Commission Wednesday night at the town center for a presentation on how landowners can preserve oceanfront property for commercial fishing use.
Jeff Kendall, a property appraiser from the Maine Revenue Service Property Tax Division, spoke before a small audience about the state’s working waterfront current use program.
Residents who own oceanfront property may be able to classify their land under the Working Waterfront program to ensure it remains open for commercial fishing use. The program can reduce a landowner’s property tax, but the goal should be to follow the intent of the tax law, he said.
This program is not something a landowner would want to jump into without full knowledge, Kendall cautioned the some eight or nine residents sitting in the room. If a landowner violates the conditions of this current use classification, high penalties are subsequently imposed.
However, a landowner may benefit from the program if the intent is not to use the law to as a means to avoid paying higher property taxes, but to save the working waterfront for future generations.
Kendall explained how the working waterfront current use classification works and also a bit about tree growth, open space and farmland current use classifications.
Further details will appear in the March 5 print edition of The Lincoln County News.