OTISFIELD — A long-awaited 99-year lease agreement for Heniger Park is complete and copies are expected to be sent to leaseholders this week.

“It’s a bird in the hand. This is a guarantee,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Hal Ferguson said.

The agreement with the town provides a guarantee for leaseholders that their camps will be available to their families for the next century.

Selectmen said the leases will increase the tax base at Heniger Park from $10,000 to $98,000 annually, based on the current tax rate of $12 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The agreement must be signed and returned to the Town Office by April 30, 2015, and will be effective July 1, 2015.

The 100-acre parcel of mostly wooded land on Pleasant Lake was left to the town in 1943 by noted Broadway producer Jacob Heniger. His will stipulated that the Board of Selectmen decide what would be done with the real estate.

Selectmen and members of the Heniger Park Reassessment Committee have worked the past two years on a more equitable plan to address leases, which some said benefited the leaseholder at the town’s expense.

The 99-year lease will be countersigned by selectmen and become effective after the town confirms the leaseholder is not in default under the current lease and an environmental inspection determines there are no adverse environmental conditions on the lot.

The environmental conditions include that the septic system is adequately sized, maintained and properly functioning and there are no adverse shoreland erosion conditions that need to be addressed. Each leaseholder must contact the code enforcement office to schedule an inspection. If any conditions are identified, the leaseholder has until Sept. 30, 2015, to correct them.

If the deadline is missed, the leaseholder will no longer be eligible for the 99-year lease.

Ferguson said if the leaseholder decides not to take the agreement, there is no guarantee what will happen in the future.

Those who do not accept the agreement will have leases extended to no longer than 2040, but those terms could change at any time under a new Board of Selectmen.

“There’s no guarantee it will be renewed,” Ferguson said. In fact, there is no guarantee that a new board might not want to take the property back for some other use, he said.

Leaseholders, many of whom have been in their camps for decades, said the new arrangement may tax them out of them camps.

At least two leaseholders have placed their camps on the market.

“This has caused incredible sadness and loss in our family to have to sell and we also have fear that the incredibly high lease fees will be restrictive in being able to sell the cottage,” Shirley Boyce of Norway said. She and her husband, Jim, have placed their long-held family camp on the market, she said.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

New lease reflects increased revenues

OTISFIELD — In 1965, the Board of Selectmen drew up agreements allowing people to lease the 37 lots in Heniger Park on Pleasant Lake for $0 to $50 per year for 50 years.

Those leases are set to expire between 2015 and 2032.

Also in 1965, leaseholders were allowed to build camps, and most did, paying taxes on the full value of structures, but not on the leased land.

Lease payments are calculated by the assessed land value of $15,000 for back lots and $30,000 for lakefront lots, which is then multiplied by the current tax rate. The lease fee of $0 to $50 is added on.

Under a new agreement, the assessed value for lakefront lots will increase to between $185,095 and $213,000. The assessed value for backlots will be $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 and that will be multiplied by the tax rate.

Buildings will continue to be taxed at the current tax rate. Any lot without a building, of which there are two, is assessed at $20,000. Under the new agreement, the leaseholder has 24 months to build a taxable structure or forfeit the lease.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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