POLAND — Selectmen on Tuesday continued to grapple with land-use issues in the failed Bakerton Subdivision that refuse to go quietly into the night.
Conservation Commission Co-Chairman Fred Huntress suggested a land swap with one of the owners of land in the defunct Hilts Hollow subdivision off Route 26.
Huntress, who is working on having the town-owned, 125-acre Heart of Poland land placed under a conservation easement, saw a swap as a solution to a couple of problems.
Andre Laliberte, who owns Lot 6 in the former subdivision, is encroaching on town-owned land immediately adjacent to the Heart of Poland land and is stalling the process of placing the land under a conservation easement.
Laliberte is also battling with the town over whether he can build on Lot 6 and gain access from his property onto Route 26.
Huntress suggested to Laliberte that he might approach selectmen with a proposal to swap his land in Hilts Hollow with a town-owned, 10-acre lot out on Estes Way.
“The Conservation Commission has recommended that the town sell this land, but it might be a fair exchange to swap it for your land in Hilts Hollow and give you a usable and accessible lot,” Huntress wrote in a letter to Laliberte.
Selectman Janice Kimball was concerned that the idea had been presented to the landowner before running it by the board and suggested that the swap might set an undesirable precedent.
Town Manager Bradley Plante noted that, because the Estes Way property was gifted to the town and not tax-acquired, the swap could only be approved by action of a town meeting.
At Selectman Stan Tetenman’s suggestion, the board agreed to discuss the land swap at its Feb. 7 meeting and determine then whether to take it to the April town meeting.
In a related matter, Larry Hilt voiced concerns that he would not be able to access Route 26 from his house in the abandoned Bakerton subdivision. Selectmen told him that they will address his issues at its Dec. 17 meeting.
In other business, selectmen met with Code Enforcement Officer Nick Adams regarding his letter of intent to prosecute Terri Ireland, owner of the property at 40 Orchard Road, for failing to obtain a building permit for a house on the property.
Ireland apparently built a house on the property around 2005 and it went unnoticed until Adams spotted it a year ago when Ireland applied for a permit for a garage.
Adams said he has been working with Ireland for the past year and, while he has made some progress, Ireland has not followed through.
Selectmen directed Adams to inform Ireland that the board would take up the matter of going to court at its Jan. 3 meeting.
Regional School Unit 16 School Committee Chairwoman Mary Martin read a statement to selectmen stating the committee’s desire to settle RSU 16’s dispute with the town over the status of the RSU bus bay in the town garage by means of a joint workshop.
Selectmen agreed to discuss the matter at their Dec. 20 meeting.
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