The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Land Trust Aims to Save Orchard From Developers

November 23, 2009 - KENTS HILL -- It's been on the market for more than a year, its future uncertain.

Now, an effort is afoot to preserve Kents Hill Orchard as working farmland, even under new ownership.

Maine Farmland Trust, a Belfast-based preservation group, is brokering a deal to purchase the 84-acre orchard and resell it to someone who would continue to work the land, not develop it.

The trust is starting a fundraising appeal, hoping to motivate Kents Hill area residents to subsidize part of the purchase, said John Piotti, the trust's executive director.

The trust has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with Perry Drake, the orchard owner, Piotti said. Drake declined comment on the deal.

"We target properties that are vulnerable properties where the owners need to sell for whatever reason," said Piotti, a Democratic representative from Unity who also serves as Maine House majority leader.

Kents Hill Orchard is vulnerable to development, he said, and it's a property worth preserving.

"It's a property that could easily turn into nice house lots," Piotti said. "It's also a community institution."

If the trust's purchase is successful, the orchard would become part of the organization's "buy-protect-sell" program. Piotti said the trust has no specific buyer lined up, but the group has a database of interested buyers who can be matched with the right property.

"What they are getting is the chance to buy preserved land," Piotti said. "Generally speaking, farmers will jump at the chance to buy preserved land. They don't want to develop it; they want to farm it."

The trust is confident enough it can find a buyer that it's going ahead with efforts to purchase the orchard, Piotti said.

"We think it's a very desirable property and we will be able to find someone," he said.

The property's assessed value is $356,000, according to Readfield town records. Piotti said it's likely the farmland trust's purchase price will be higher than its sale price to the eventual buyer.

Readfield Town Manager Stefan Pakulski said a Maine Farmland Trust purchase with the objective of keeping the orchard as farmland is consistent with the town's comprehensive plan, which aims to "retain rural enterprises as much as possible."

"There are people around who would very much like to see farmland retained," Pakulski said.

Piotti will speak to Readfield selectmen tonight about his group's efforts.

Mary Wright, a selectwoman in neighboring Fayette, said she's willing to help the trust make the Kents Hill Orchard deal work.

"My main interest is that it stay farmland and not go commercial, because I think we need more open space," she said.

Fayette Town Manager Mark Robinson said his town wouldn't be formally involved in the trust's conservation efforts, but said there's wide interest in seeing the property preserved.

By MATTHEW STONE, Kennebec Journal November 23, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Belgrade


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News