New Information and Tools

Ted introduces Kristen Grant of Maine Sea Grant and UMaine Cooperative Extension, who is going to talk about the project background. There was a series of workshops held between 2003 and 2006 about these issues. The goal was to get people together to talk about the varying types of access. From those workshops, a set of action items was put together, including legal tools the towns could use on their own to avoid litigation on access issues.

In Maine, she says, people prefer to work together over going to court. However, there wasn't a lot of legal information about how to do this. There was a request for proposals about legal issues to solve this problem.

The first step was to have a law student, David Kallin, develop legal research on possible strategies for landowners. Dave produced a dense 40-page document, the subject of which Rita Heimes will talk about.

Rita Heimes - What Legal Tools Are There?

Rita begins to talk about the legal tools regarding shoreline access. Many of these things, she says have existed for a long time. The trick is to explain these strategies to people so that they can be utilized.

First: Who owns access rights?

Traditional ownership belongs to individuals, private groups, government or land trusts. Trust ownerships include, for example, the government (which owns title of the land in a public trust for citizens).

Public Trust Doctrine - The state owns the land in the interest of the public, and has a duty to ensure that it's not used incorrectly.

In most states, coastal landowners can only own up to the high tide mark, and the state owns everything below that. In Maine, though, property owners can own down to the low water mark, and the state owns from there on. However, the State does hold certain rights to the "wet part" of the beach, and therefore the public can access that land for: fishing, fowling and navigation.

How can people get access to these portions?

Well, they could buy it (either an easement or the physical property itself) on the open market or the State can 'buy' it using eminent domain.

Why buy an easement (right to use)? It's cheaper, for one. You don't need to buy the entire property. It can be permanent, and it can also be public. Landowners can give land as a conservation easement. Sellers/donors may qualify for public money and/or receive tax breaks.

Second, landowners can grant access to people simply by giving permission. Simple permission may not be legally enforceable, but landowners can opt out at any time. On the other hand, landowners can also create a formal contract by receiving some compensation by those getting access.

How is access regulated? A lot of ways. Coastal zoning. Environmental regulations. Harbor Plans. Sound ordinances. In sum, there are a lot of ways to ensure that landowners who grant access will not have their land abused.

Q: There are some shore properties that have been accessible for years, but do not have any formal, written agreements. Now comes the developer, who buys the land and stops the traditional use. This cuts off fisherman AND property owners.

Rita: This comes up a lot. People are worried about not having put any limits on their property in the past, but may want to start limiting use. The public can gain prescriptive easements to the access by using property in a certain manner for 20 years without being stopped by landowners. This happened in the town of Wells. So, one answer is that the public may already have access. If, however, the property owner has given permission to the public, the prescriptive easement is killed.

Kristen Grant - Using the Access Law Web site

Kristen started with the question of: who are the people who are looking for this information? Waterfront users (commercial and recreational), community entities, coastal property owners.

How are these people going to try to find the information? People will come with a problem and try to find a solution. The best way to present this info, Kristen says, is through a web site. Kristen's going to give us a tour.

Start at http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/accesslaw/index.htm. Use the search field to start looking for a specific concept or legal approach. This helps people by allowing them to explore. Kristen says that some people may come with a particular solution in mind, and that this site will help them find solutions they may not have thought of.

It may be easier to click the "Site Map" link to get an overview of the possibilities of the site. The "Who Are You" approach to searching allows the user to search from their particular perspective. "Private Landowner," "Government Entity" and "Waterfront User" are all options here. Once any of these "Who Are You" pages are accessed, there are some key questions in the blue box at the top right that the particular user may want answered.

You can also search with "Tools." The same information is found here, the user is just getting at it from a different way. These are a list of potential problems that users may be looking to answer, including "Acquiring Access", "Contracts of Access", "Plan and Regulate for Access" and "Using Taxes for Access." These tools, Kristen says, help focus a search and also allow a user to explore options previously unknown.

"Legal Principles and Statutes" is a more educational, less problem-based, section of the site. "Frequently Asked Questions" can help users find answers to more specific questions, but Kristen warns that not all of the listed questions have online answers at this stage. She also stresses that more questions can and will be listed in this section when they arise.

Kristen and Rita stress that the information on this site is not legal advice. It is Maine-specific, and cannot necessarily be counted on to apply for other states.

Q: A commenter is "blown away" by how organized the site is. She is worried, though, about how people will discover the site in the first place.

Kristen says that once the site is live there will be press releases, a statewide release effort and some smaller outreach programs, or "open-houses," where the web site can be demo'd and explained.

Q: Another commenter says she would like to see the Maine state government do more to empower local town offices to provide information to citizens. She wants to see a trickle-down from Sea Grant and the State to provide better access on the local level.

Q: In response, a commenter says that the web site may be small enough to be included on CDs sent to town planners and other officials.

Q: What is there on the site about landowner liability?

Kristen says that there is a definition of landowner liability on the site, but the site needs more information on this topic. If, she says, there is a missing level of depth on liability, she could try to include it. The commenter says that there is landowner liability information already available, and that it should be linked to in order to encourage landowners to grant access without worry.

Q: When is the projected release date for the site?

Kristen: There is nothing to prevent anyone here from getting to the site. Developers will be fine-tuning it, though, until probably the first of 2009.

Q: Are there freshwater sections of the site?

Kristen: No, at this point it's just saltwater coastal land. Rita says that Maine allows access over private property to freshwater sites.

Next: Where do we go from here?