OTISFIELD — A Heniger Park lot on Pleasant Lake that was abandoned years ago will be leased again, selectmen Chairman Hal Ferguson said this week.

Lot 4, which the town acquired for nonpayment of taxes at least 20 to 25 years ago, according to Code Enforcement Officer Richard St. John, will be offered for lease under new terms that have been developed this year.

Lot 4 is part of about 100 acres the town acquired in 1943 from noted Broadway producer Jacob Heniger. His will stipulated that the Board of Selectmen decide what would be done with the real estate. The land was eventually divided into 35 or so lots and leased by the town.

Lot 4 is the only unleased lot.

Ferguson said it is not clear how they will determine who will be selected to lease the property.

“It will be difficult because it’s not really fair to do it on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s really complex, perhaps some sort of lottery,” Ferguson said.

What is clear is the lease amount will be determined by using the formula developed by the Heniger Park Reassessment Committee and approved by voters in a straw vote at the annual town meeting in June. The formula was detailed to the public in a informational meeting earlier this year.

Under the proposed agreements, the assessed value for lakefront lots will increase to about $185,095-$213,000 and back lots to $44,340. Instead of multiplying the land value by the tax rate, a land capitalization rate of 2.2 percent will be applied as the lease fee, with the lease increasing by the same percentage as the tax rate each year.

Structures on the lots are taxed at the current rate of $11.55 per thousand dollars of assessed value.

The draft lease agreements are now being drawn up and selectmen expect to have them in hand in several weeks.

Those who terminate their lease in writing between Jan. 1, 2015, and June 30, 2015, will be offered a 99-year lease under the new terms.

Those who don’t accept the new agreement will have their leases expire.

The new terms were developed after selectmen decided to find a more equitable way to lease the lots.

Under the old agreement, lakefront lots were assessed at $30,000, and back lots at $15,000. To determine the amount of the lease, the values were multiplied by the tax rate of $11.55 per thousand dollars of property value, and a fee between $0 and $50 was tacked on. The leases bring in a total of $9,538 annually — an amount that some taxpayers say should have been much more.

Ferguson said under the new lease terms, if all the current lease holders renew their leases, the plan will generate an estimated $100,551.

While the new lease agreements appear to be financially favorable to the town’s tax base, some people have questioned why Lot 4 has been held by the town for so many years without any activity that could have generated revenue.

Ferguson said he was unaware the lot was not being leased until several years ago when the board began to discuss how to make the land more profitable for the town. He said he preferred not to take any action on the lot until the new lease agreements could be ironed out.

Lot 4 is a 100- by 170-foot lakeside lot overgrown with trees and bushes. It has a small building on it that is valued by the town at $2,200. The building has no windows or doors and has been infested by animals over the years, officials said.

There are some land issues, Ferguson said.

“It has a distinct berm at the lake and some wetland behind it,” Ferguson said. The berm can not be touched, he said.

He and other selectmen, the code enforcement officer, Michael Morse from the Department of Environmental Protection and town forester Bill Newcomb met at property in July to determine what would be needed to put the lot on the rental market.

“The building is currently considered a legally nonconforming structure,” St. John said. That means that if more than 50 percent of the building is removed at any given time in the future, the Planning Board can step in and decide whether the structure needs to be set back “to the greatest practical extent.”

“They determine how far back,” St. John said. The decision is based on the desire to get the structure at least to the 100-foot setback but does depend on side setbacks and road setbacks and other issues such as septic fields, if applicable.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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