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Latest news from the Long Range Planning Team - April 20, 2001

DRAFT
CHEBEAGUE ISLAND LONG TERM PLAN
June 10, 2000











1. Introduction - The Vision for Chebeague
Over the last year, the period your Long Range Planning Committee has been at work, a vision for the Chebeague has become clear. It is an island that:

  1. Maintains a year round working community that includes those who make their living on and around the island and people who commute to the mainland,

  2. Works to maintain and supports a viable fishing/lobstering industry,

  3. Has a diversity of year round residents including both younger, working households and retired people and works to maintain this mix,

  4. Provides an environment and services that are attractive for families with children,

  5. Has a balance of year-round, seasonal, and summer residents and works to assure that a diversity of residents continues to reside on Chebeague,

  6. Allows long-term island families to be able to continue to live on the island either year-round or seasonally,

  7. Accommodates households with a range a incomes that contribute to the character of the community,

  8. Provides a range of year round services that allow it to be viable year-round community,

  9. Relies on the groundwater as its water supply and will continue to do so in the future,

  10. Encourages and supports small commercial activities on the island especially those that enable people to be year-round residents but discourages the type of enterprises that cater to or encourage day trippers,

  11. Maintains a balance between developed and natural areas, protects important natural and scenic resources.

  12. Provides a pleasant, quiet, rural character for both residents and visitors.


  1. Threats to Achieving the Vision
  2. A disruption of the transportation system to the island or a change in the system that substantially reduces convenience especially for year-round residents or increases the costs significantly,

  3. A change to the transportation system to the island that makes it significantly easier for day trippers to visit Chebeague,

  4. Contamination or a significant decrease in the quality of the groundwater upon which the island population relies,

  5. A loss or significant reduction in water access for fishermen,

  6. Deterioration, loss, or substantial increase in the cost of key services on a year-round basis including auto service, boat service and repair, the store, fuel oil/propane supply, etc.,

  7. Loss of the elementary school through a decline in enrollments or a significant change in the attractiveness of the island for younger families with children as a result of a decline in the quality of the education on the island or changes in the mainland school system that adversely impact the involvement of island children in both educational and extra curricular activities,

  8. Increasing housing cost/lack of affordable housing that makes it difficult for younger year-round families to live on/move to the island,

  9. Increasing property tax burdens that make it difficult for moderate income home owners to retain their properties or that encourage owners of larger parcels to sell or develop vacant property,

  10. A significant change in the mix of summer, seasonal, and year-round population that changes the character of the island,

  11. A significant change in the ratio of developed to undeveloped land that changes the character of the island.

  12. A significant change in the type or amount of public improvements that change the rural character of the island.



    II A: Groundwater
    Groundwater is the water that occupies and saturates the pore spaces between grains in soil and fills the narrow passageway in fractures that cut through the underlying bedrock. There are no underground rivers that supply water from distant sources such as Cousin's Island, Bradbury Mountain or other mainland locations The movement of precipitation from the land surface into the surficial and bedrock aquifers is called recharge. The amount of recharge that occurs in a certain location is dependent on the character of the overlying soil. The overlying soil type, such as clay or gravel, will influence the amount of water available for pumping and the ability of the soils to reabsorb and cleanse domestic waste water.

    Chebeague's groundwater resources differ from mainland Cumberland in one very important way: Chebeague is a sole source aquifer: This means that all groundwater on the island originates as precipitation that falls on the island as either rain, snow or fog. On Chebeague, all water users are dependent on individual wells for water supply. Residents of the Island recognize that there are no reasonable alternative water supplies. On the survey they ranked preserving the groundwater first among 31 issues that they were asked about. The goal of this section is to:

    PRESERVE AND PROTECT CHEBEAGUE’S GROUNDWATER

    Current Conditions
    In 1991 through 1992, at the request of the Town of Cumberland, a groundwater study was completed on the island. The results of the study are presented in the report CI Groundwater Study, prepared by Sevee & Maher Engineers. The main findings of this study were:
    The bedrock is the primary aquifer on the island. In 1992, approximately 86% of the island households relied on bedrock wells and the remainder relied on dug wells or shallow well points for their water supplies.

    The natural water quality of the island is generally good, with iron and sulfide being the only naturally occurring contaminants. In some cases high iron levels require treatment.

    The quantity of water provided by the aquifer is sufficient to accommodate more future development than is likely to occur. Water quality sampling indicated that approximately 25% of the wells sampled tested positive for coliform bacteria. These results may be indicative of septic related contamination suggesting that existing housing density may be too close in some areas, or that septic systems may be malfunctioning. The densely developed West End of the island near the Casco Bay Ferry dock reported the most problems in 1992.

    Saltwater intrusion appears to be a potential problem in certain areas of the Island, especially near Division Shores. Continued development along the shoreline may result in saltwater intrusion in both new and existing wells.

    Threats to groundwater quality
    Junk cars
    are much more numerous on the Island than on mainland Cumberland. Junk cars are a potential source of petroleum contamination to the groundwater Junk cars are regulated by the Town Code Enforcement Officer.

    Household waste and spills are a potential source of groundwater contamination. Improper use and disposal of household cleaners and paint related compounds could result in significant groundwater contamination.

    Petroleum use and storage is regulated by the Maine DEP, although the Town can adopt more stringent regulations. Currently, commercial quantities of gasoline and diesel are stored at the boatyard, fuel oil is stored in trucks at Martin's Hill garage and diesel is stored in an above ground tank at the Town Garage. In addition, junk cars, home heating oil or kerosene tanks and homeowner supplies are a significant potential source of contamination. In 1999, the Maine DEP visited the Island and determined that home heating tanks were a significant threat to groundwater on the island.

    Fertilizers and herbicides, even when properly applied can contaminate the groundwater. The current status of use of the chemicals on the Island is unknown.

    Septic systems, if properly designed, sited, installed and maintained, treat human and house wastes and infiltrate the treated waste water back into the ground. That's a lot of if s. Septic systems regulated by the State Plumbing Code and monitored by the Town Code Enforcement Officer. Types of systems currently in use on Chebeague include: Standard tanks and leach fields, Non-standard septic systems, & leach fields, Cesspools, Over board discharge, and Composting. Malfunctioning or poorly operating systems can be source of contamination to the groundwater and the marine environment, i.e. lobster nurseries and clam flats. Septic Systems require regular maintenance - pumping - in order to effectively treat the waste. In public information sessions conducted in 1999 as part of this project, it was apparent that many homeowners were not properly maintaining their septic systems. This is due to the difficulty and expense of getting a pump truck to the island and also a lack of awareness of the importance of pumping the system regularly. Innovative systems are also being developed for use in coastal areas that can be installed in areas shallow bedrock. This may change site requirements for septic disposal and may impact allowable housing density in the future

    Salt Water Intrusion is an important concern for Chebeague. The island is entirely surrounded by seawater, and the less dense fresh water floats on top of the seawater as a lens. Bedrock wells drilled close to the shore, or several bedrock wells clustered together can intercept this interface and pull in salt water. In 1992, saltwater intrusion problems already existed along Division Shores. With increased development along the shoreline, the potential for saltwater intrusion problems increases.







    II B: WETLANDS
    Wetlands are particularly critical on Chebeague because they are an important element in the system of groundwater recharge. Since we have a sole source aquifer, this groundwater recharge is essential to the wells we all depend on. As a result, we need to protect Island wetlands from degradation and development. The goal here is to:

    PROTECT WETLANDS FOR AQUIFER RECHARGE TO THE EXTENT THAT IS POSSIBLE UNDER CURRENT GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS.

    FOR PARTICULARLY ESSENTIAL WETLANDS STRONGER METHODS SUCH AS PURCHASE OF LAND OR EASEMENTS MAY BE NECESSARY.


    Because wetlands are now regulated to protect them from development, it has been necessary to develop standard definitions that allow them to be reliably identified and mapped. So wetlands are defined by having three characteristics. First they have water. They can either have saturated soil or they can actually be "inundated" with water, meaning that the water is visible on the surface. Often the water level in wetlands goes up and down over the course of the year. Second, they have particular kinds of soils, called "hydric" soils. Third, they have particular kinds of plants that are adapted to life in wet conditions. These three characteristics are intertwined because the presence of the water in or above the soil makes the ground anaerobic, meaning that it does not get air, so only plants that can grow in such conditions over an extended period of time can survive. A hydric soil is one "that is saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough during the growth season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part" (USDA, Soil Conservation Service, 1991).

    Wetlands can be "marine" that is they are fed by salt water from the ocean, or they can be "freshwater" wetlands fed by Groundwater or surface sources such as rivers or streams. They can occur in the area where oceans or lakes meet the shore and the shore rises to upland. Or they can be found in depressions in the landscape. Each kind of habitat -- salt, brackish and fresh, saturated below ground or inundated, above -- has its own kinds of animals and plants.

    If you didn't know whether there were wetlands on Chebeague or not, you could look on maps or at the land itself for the defining characteristics of wetlands. Where are there bodies of water -- ocean, streams or ponds? Where are there wetland or "hydric" soils? And where are there plants that are typical of wetlands? The wetland map that we have is the map produced for the National Wetlands Inventory by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The mapping is done from aerial photographs, and are not always checked "on the ground" which means that some forested wetlands, in particular may be missed. A look at a map of the hydric soils on Chebeague shows much larger areas of hydric soils than of mapped wetlands. So the question posed by comparing these maps is whether the wetlands are more extensive than the map shows.

    How Do Governments Protect Wetlands?
    Most of the regulation is done by the State through the Department of Environmental Protection and the Federal Government through the Army Corps of Engineers. The Town has no particular zoning regulations for wetlands. Given the State and Federal regulation, instituting such a zone, only on Chebeague, would probably not be worth the concern it would create among affected landowners.

    The Town Subdivision Ordinance prohibits development on filled tidal wetlands and in areas where the soils present severe limitations for development. The only non-buildable soil on Chebeague is Sebago mucky peat which occurs in several small areas.

    The Shoreland Area Overlay District requires that certain wetlands be classified as Resource Protection, which restricts permitted uses to such low-intensity uses as recreation and forest and wildlife management. Some coastal wetlands in the shoreland zone are classified as Resource Protection: Indian Point, Durgin's Pond, Chandler Cove Beach, Sandy Point, all the area around Johnson Cove and the beach and wetland at Rose's Point. Some, such as Springettes and Bennett Cove are not in the Resource Protection Zone. The most notable shoreland Zone restriction, although one not directly tied to wetland management, is the requirement for a shoreland zoning permit for any land use or building in that area.







    II C: LAND USE
    A feeling that Chebeague is changing more rapidly than residents want pervaded the responses to the planning survey. What seems to draw people or to keep them on Chebeague, summer and winter alike, is that it is a small rural place surrounded by water. The fact that it is only moderately rural is irrelevant. What survey respondents wanted most to preserve about the Island was its open space, its access to beaches and to the shore, and its rural character. The issue they identified as the most pressing for Island residents to deal with was growth and development, mentioned spontaneously in an open-ended question by half the respondents. Clearly shaping development and preserving open space are two sides of the same coin. The overall goal that has shaped this section is to :

    WORK TO MAINTAIN CHEBEAGUE AS A SMALL COMMUNITY WITH A RURAL LAND USE PATTERN

    If the immediate past is any guide to the future, who built houses since 1991, and what and where they built, should tell us something about what may happen in the next ten years. Since 1991, building permits were issued for 25 houses. Most (80% or more) were built as year-round structures, though only 28% (7 houses) are occupied as a primary residence year-round. About a third of the new houses have been built by new summer residents -- people from "away". The rest are almost evenly divided between houses built by year-round working people who are mostly long-time residents, year-round houses built by summer people who have or may want to retire to Chebeague, and houses built by long-term summer people who mostly come in the summer. The bottom line here, is that two thirds were built by people with long connections to the Island, so as far as new construction goes “we have met the enemy and it is us”.

    A series of “build-out” scenarios were done in 1997. They projected several variations of present development patterns into the future. The results suggested that “total build out” of all developable lots on the Island could result in more than a doubling of the number of houses, from 400 now to 950 in 50 years. Projecting the current actual growth rate would result in about 150 to 200 new houses over the next 50 years, for a total of from 550 to 600 houses.

    Mechanisms for Controlling Development
    What combination of land use regulations and other programs would enable Chebeaguers to control the development that will occur? Zoning and subdivision regulations are the basic tools we have to use. But they are not the only ones. A brief description of each can help to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these tools.

    A subdivision ordinance regulates the division of undeveloped "raw" land like a farm field or a tract of woods into lots that can be developed for residential or commercial use. The purpose of subdivision regulations is to be sure that the lots created are clearly defined legally, and will have suitable services so that both their buyers and the general public are not harmed by things like pollution, erosion, and traffic congestion. Subdivision ordinances require that lots can be served by adequate water, sewage service, solid waste disposal, roads, fire protection, utilities, storm drainage, and sometimes land for recreation or parks.

    The zoning ordinance, in turn, regulates the uses that can be built on subdivided lots, and how dense development can be. The general logic of zoning is to reduce the negative side-effects that can come with development. No one wants to buy a house and then have a slaughter house built next door.
    In the Cumberland Zoning Ordinance Chebeague is divided into two zones. What distinguishes the Island Business district from the Island Residential one? Not a great deal. Both zones require a minimum lot size of 1.5 acres if there is at least 150 feet of road frontage, and 3 acres for “back lots” with less road frontage. Both allow single family houses and duplexes. In the zoning ordinance, the Island is seen as largely residential, with a rural resource-based economy and a smattering of businesses and services necessary for the year-round and summer residents. There are no zones for offices, for large-scale commercial uses, for manufacturing/industry, nor for multi-family housing.

    In addition to the residential and business zones on Chebeague there are several "overlay" districts that apply only to the shoreland area in order to protect the water from pollution and the shore from erosion. Chebeague has also been designated in the Zoning Ordinance as Aquifer Protection area because it has a sole source aquifer. These provisions largely control storage or disposal of materials such as hazardous waste, road salt, manure, petroleum that might pollute the Groundwater.

    Taken together, the zoning and subdivision regulations determine required services for development and set minimum sizes of lots as well as setbacks of buildings from lot lines. In other words, they establish the amount of development that can take place and what kind of development it is allowed to be. They say nothing about where it should go -- any place is acceptable as long as the various standards set out in the regulations can be met. They say little about what development should look like. And, finally, they set no limit, except the 1.5/3 acre lot requirement, on how much development can occur.

    There are ways to control location, appearance and amount of development. As this plan goes out for review, the Town of Cumberland is considering a placing a cap on development by limiting the number of building permits issued for new houses each year to 44, including Chebeague. Of these, 22 would be in subdivisions, and 22 would apply to individual applications. The conversion of a seasonal to a year-round house would be considered new construction. The Town also has ordinances and policies that we can use, such as the mechanisms for protecting open space proposed by the recent mainland Growth Management Committee. One way to reduce the amount of development would be to simply increase the lot size requirement in the zoning ordinance. However, this is politically unpopular because many people take the existing provisions of the zoning ordinance as a “given” and make plans, for example, for willing property to children, based on it. An alternative to reducing development simply by regulation is to do it by relying on both voluntary strategies for land protection and on providing market value for some land. This is primarily but not entirely a strategy for protecting open space. Ways to do this include:


INSURE THAT LAND USE REGULATIONS PROTECT THE ISLAND'S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.
In general the regulations that govern land development provide adequate protection for the natural environment. Much of Chebeague's appeal comes from its natural beauty as an island, but we are uniquely vulnerable, as well, to environmental problems such as groundwater pollution. The addition to Cumberland's zoning of the Shoreland Zone, for example, responds to this concern. So does the designation of Chebeague as an Aquifer Protection Zone. However, the Committee's discussions did identify several ways in which these provisions could be strengthened.

MAINTAIN VISUAL, HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER OF THE ISLAND AS FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OCCURS.
The way Chebeague looks now is a combination of the semi-rural character of the Island and the succession of different styles of houses and other buildings that have been built. Preservation of the rural character of the Island has been discussed above. The Island is fairly unique in having the majority of its present houses and other prominent buildings such as the Church, the Inn, the old schools and the Hall built before 1940. There are many fine Victorian and Greek Revival houses, along with a few Federal ones. Together with the large and small summer cottages from 1890 through the 1920s, these define "the look" of Chebeague. Most older houses have lasted long enough for people to appreciate their style. And many have been occupied by several generations of the same family who value their memories as well as their style. The problem primarily lies in the future as new houses make up an increasing part of the stock.







II D: OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION
The goals are:
PRESERVE SIGNIFICANT TRACTS OF OPEN SPACE ON CHEBEAGUE
SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES FOR RECREATION AND INTELLECTUAL ENRICHMENT

If the recommendations made in the previous section on Land Use are accepted, then an open space plan for Chebeague is critical for preserving the Island's rural character. Fortunately, during the year that Chebeague has been working on its plan, an Open Space Committee has been working on an Open Space Plan for the mainland part of the Town. Since the goals and strategies on this issue are quite similar on both sides of the water, this section borrows heavily from the mainland plan. As they say in pulp fiction "only the [place] names have been changed."

We concur with the primary statement of purpose for the mainland plan which states:
“the growth management section of the [Town] Plan discusses the desirability of keeping large parcels of land undeveloped, and of helping landowners to do so by letting them realize financial benefit from their land without selling it. Benefits may be in the form of lowered property taxes, or actual payments. In return for the benefit the owner would agree not to develop the land. To achieve this, the Plan makes suggestions such as; (1) creating a local conservation easement or lease purchase program, (2) purchasing rights-of-first-refusal and development rights, and (3) acquiring land. In all cases, the Plan suggests that the affected land have "high value", or provide a "public benefit", but it doesn't state what those qualities or benefits are -- that is the purpose of the Open Space Plan. The land inventories and recommendations included in this plan can provide the Town Council [and others] with the information necessary to make decisions.” (Draft Open Space Plan, 2000, p. 1).

What lands on Chebeague have "high value" as open space or would particularly provide a "public benefit"? Chebeague can provide the mainland with public ocean front property -- the one kind of open space it most notably lacks. Other high value lands include the few remaining open fields on the Island, forest lands, wildlife habitat and particularly scenic views. The priorities for preserving are:


PRESERVE ACCESS TO THE SHORE
Chebeague has 13.15 miles of coastline. Access to the shore on the Island has always been a very visible issue for everyone. Fishermen, who often don't live on the shore, obviously have to reach it to put in and take out their gear and to reach their boats. Some use the Island's wharves for the former. But many others take their equipment out over the beach and get to their boats the same way. Access to the shore is also important for clamming. Chebeague's clam flats have been managed by the Town since 1981 and some are now reopening not only for recreational but even for commercial clamming. In addition, it is important to keep rocky areas along the shore undisturbed because they are places where young lobsters hide and molt until they are large enough to manage in open waters.

Chebeague is also, of course, a "vacation destination", and who "goes to the shore" and doesn't expect to be able to go to the beach? Unlike the mainland, Chebeague does have areas of both rocky coastline and of sandy beaches that all residents love to use. Access to the water has not been a problem on Chebeague in the past. And one of the purposes of this plan is to ensure that, as development pressures grow along the shore, it does not become a problem. Donna Damon's work since 1989 for Cumberland's Coastal Access Project has documented the underlying legal history and rights to many of the roads and paths that give access to the shore. Some are public, and some are easements granted by developers or abutters.

PRESERVE CHEBEAGUE'S FIELDS AND FORESTS
In the past Chebeague had both farms and wood lots. Much of the land was actually cleared; you could see the water from almost any part of North and South Roads. Today there is one market-garden farm and some sheep that move around the Island. And there are still some fields that are kept mowed that give a sense of the old farming landscape. Since the 1930s, the rest of the Island has grown up in dense woods except where people have kept their house lots cleared, so there is still a lot of undeveloped land, much of it forested.

There are two State “current use” programs that tax land at less than its full value for development. One is the Tree Growth program. Some land on Chebeague is in the Tree Growth program. Land may be placed in this program if a parcel is larger than ten acres and is used for commercial (not personal) timber harvesting. Once the land is enrolled, it is taxed at its value as commercial forest land and must be managed and harvested as laid out in a Management Plan. The difficulty with this on CI; there is little interest in selective harvesting, which would maintain the forest but allow it to be commercially harvested.

An alternative to the Tree Growth program is the State's Open Space program. The amount of the property tax reduction here varies from 20 percent for ordinary, private, unprotected open space land, to 50 percent for land permanently protected by a conservation easement, up to 95 percent if it is kept forever wild by conservation easement and is accessible to the public. There is no minimum lot size for the program. If the land is taken out of the program a penalty must be paid. The factors that the state takes into account when they decide public benefit gained by preserving a particular piece of land include:

To encourage use of the Open Space program a community should have a plan indicating land that is intended to be kept in open space. On Chebeague, because of the closeness of the shore and the undeveloped woods and fields, virtually any undeveloped land would be suitable for open space. However it would be useful to develop criteria, based at least in part of the State factors, for what land would be most suitable.

PRESERVE ACCESS TO ESTABLISHED PATHS ON THE ISLAND

Chebeague has lots of paths. In the past, people often had to get around the Island on foot, and many people still do. The Cumberland Mainland and Islands Trust is working on gaining formal easements to traditional paths. They are now in the process of mapping the trails so protected. Many of the paths pass through wooded parts of the Island that might be protected by the Open Space program.

PRESERVE SCENIC AREAS AND VIEWS
What is a scenic area? It provides a special view that members of the public can enjoy without necessarily owning or even having access to it. Often these are places that are seen from the road as people walk or drive on day to day trips. A scenic area can be either a natural feature -- a view of the ocean, for example -- or something manmade, such as a stone wall with mature shade trees along a road. When you want to view the sunset, or watch the waves crash on the shore or view the fall color, where do you go? Here we have mapped some candidates for this kind distinction:


As the Land Use section indicated, we would like to have included an inventory of historic buildings and other cultural resources. A Town survey of these was done in May 2000, too late to be included here. Some additional elements that contribute to such an inventory already exist such as a collection of past photographs of all houses which is currently being repeated,

SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES FOR RECREATION AND INTELLECTUAL ENRICHMENT
Chebeague doesn't have "public parks" in the urban sense, but we do have many of the kinds of recreation facilities that are commonly found in city parks. What is different on Chebeague is that they are typically not grouped together the way they might be in a public park, and they often aren't publicly provided. Some are provided by individuals such as Sanford's skating pond or the picnic tables at the Store, some are provided by clubs such as the Golf and Tennis Clubs, some are provided by community supported voluntary organizations such as the Library and the Recreation Center, and some have just to be used where they naturally are, like swimming at the beach.

Chebeague does have a significant recreation "complex" in the recently expanded and improved School/Recreation Center that has outdoor play areas, swimming, tennis, basketball and baseball, as well as all the year-round recreation facilities of the Rec Center. The Town provides funds for staff to the Rec Center, MSAD 51 provides the land, and local donors brought into existence the Recreation Center building and the Rec as an institution.
The Town owns a 10 acre parcel of land at Chandler Cove Beach that most residents probably think of as a park. It has an access road and some rather informal parking. It's deed requires that it be kept in its natural state. It is used for the community picnic on the Fourth of July and by swimmers, picnickers and party-goers. Other Town-owned parcels at Sunset Landing and Waldo Point might be thought of as parks, but probably are not by most people.










III A: Preserving Community: Economic and Social Life
There are two major threads to Chebeague's strategy to maintain the essential character of the Island. One, discussed in the previous sections, is to preserve its semi-rural character, with extended open space and access to the shore. The other, discussed in the section to come, is to maintain the social and economic structure of the Island that combines a year-round working community and a summer population of people who come year after year.

The two threads are tightly intertwined. Maintaining the physical character of the Island without its social structure keeps the shell without the spirit. Maintaining the economic and social structure while the undeveloped land on the Island is developed, will be difficult.

Here this plan’s focus is on the Island's economy, and on a variety of public and voluntary services, such as health care and education, that are essential elements of a year-round community. Recommendations will made about ways to improve Chebeague's quality of life. However they all assume that the Chebeague community as we know it -- a working year-round economy augmented by additional residents in the summer -- will continue to function over the long run. Here we need to explore ways that this can be assured.

If the recommendations in the Land Use and Open Space sections to preserve significant areas of open space are adopted and carried out, it will be necessary to put as much effort, energy and money into maintaining Chebeague's diverse economic, social and age structures as well. The effect of preserving land would be to reduce the supply of land available for development. As long as there is a strong market for land on Chebeague -- people who want to buy and build, and who have plenty of money to do so -- then the value or price of the remaining land will rise significantly. Indeed, the act of protecting at least some of Chebeague as present residents know it, would make it all the more attractive to people who want to live on an unconnected rural island. The rise in the selling price of land will drive up assessments and taxes, making Chebeague less affordable to year-round and summer people which ordinary "working or middle class" incomes, much less those on fixed retirement incomes. Preserving the island community is primarily an issue of capping the island’s property taxes.

John Cole founder the Maine Times, puts the issue well. Quoting from a recent column by John in the Forecaster:
“As accelerating demand for coastal property continues to gather even more momentum, taxes on that land increases with skyrocketing market values. The relatively benign property taxes of the past becomes a potent force for social engineering, strong enough to replace one group of Maine residents with another. Hundreds of traditional fishing communities from Kittery to Machias, coastal towns that have been home to the same fishing families for five or more generations, are facing or soon will, inevitable property tax increases that will force most of them from their family land.”

In this section a number of ideas are “cobbled together” in an effort to control rising property assessments and taxes. Several other sections in Part III characterize the Island’s economy and lay out a specific set of recommendations as to how it may be preserved. Others are concerned with the provision of various services on the Island.









III B: THE ISLAND ECONOMY - SHORE BASED
CI is one of a handful a Maine islands that maintains a viable year round economy and thus a diverse year round population. An understanding of the Island's year round economy is essential to planning for the future of the island since maintaining a viable year-round economy is essential to the future of the island.

CHEBEAGUE MUST MAINTAIN A DIVERSIFIED, HEALTHY, YEAR-ROUND ECONOMY THAT INCLUDES PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEIR LIVING ON AND AROUND THE ISLAND, COMMUTERS TO THE MAINLAND AND RETIREES

Unlike most mainland residents of Cumberland, islanders often depend on a number of sources of income. While some Chebeaguers have full-time, nine-to-five jobs on the Island or the mainland, many island households rely on doing a number of things to generate the family income. The ability to develop a number of sources of income is an essential element of the island economy.

Components of the Island Economy
Chebeague’s 's economy - or the source of the livelihood of the year round residents - consists of four general or groups:

The Fishing/Marine Component (Treated separately below) - Of the year-round population, approximately 52 people earn some or all of their income from fishing or marine related activities such as the boatyard, boat building, CTC, etc. About 15% of the year-round households derive all or most of their income from fishing or marine related businesses. An additional 15% of year round households get a majority of their income from fishing and marine activities.

The Commuter Component - Almost 50 island residents commute to the mainland for work on a regular basis. Almost 20% of island households rely on commuting as the principal source of household income, while another 8% have some income from commuting.

Island Business Component - Over 80 island residents work at some type of activity on the island. About 20% of year round households derive all or most of their income from on-island work other than marine related activities, while another 20% of households received some of their income from involvement in on-island business activities. A substantial portion of these on-island businesses involve providing services to both year-round and seasonal residents.

It is very difficult to know how many summer visitors there are who contribute to Chebeague's economy. There are an estimated 215 "regular" summer households. In the survey, 37% of the respondents who were summer people came for long summers, usually May to October and so would be a stable source of demand. The other 63% percent were short summer people, adding less. Beyond these "residents" who were surveyed, there are their family members and guests, people who rent cottages for a week or a month, people who come to stay at the Inn and at B&Bs, and people who come for weddings at the Inn or day trips on the CTC and the Casco Bay Lines. A 1990 "census" on the Fourth of July found about 1700 people on the Island on that day. This may represent about the maximum number on the Island at any given time.

Retired Component - Over 25% of the island's year round households are retired. An additional 5% of households can be considered to be partially or semi-retired households.

Most of the island’s businesses are small, with only a few employing any significant number of workers. Many business activities involved self-employed people fishing or providing services. Many of the businesses fall into the category of home occupations or what we will call here "residential businesses". Part of Chebeague's economy is independent of people who live on or come to the Island. Fishermen (and women) sell most of their catch on the mainland, and a few other businesses supply outside markets as well. Commuters are limited in jobs only by the distance they are willing to travel. But other Island businesses must be able to make at least part of a living from the limited local market of year round and summer people. The struggles of the Chebeague Inn to keep going, and the brief existence of the Nellie G. Cafe are examples of the limits of this market. This situation protects Chebeague from "commercialization" that some residents worry about, but also leaves us without businesses and services we might wish to have.

Because of the existence of relatively frequent and convenient ferry service, businesses serving the island market that have to compete directly with comparable mainland ones are at a particular disadvantage. This kind of competition from the mainland can be found even in construction, which has always been a staple of Chebeague's local economy. On the other hand, suppliers of thing that are difficult to get from the mainland such as island car repairs, gasoline or heating oil are clearly more viable as long as the minimum market it large enough.

Maintaining a year-round population is dependent on maintaining a viable year-round economy that allows residents of the island to earn reasonable incomes. Fishing issues are discussed in a separately. However, there are a number of issues related to the island’s ability to maintain a viable year-round, non-maritime economy raised by Island business people. Cumberland's zoning regulations sometimes make it difficult for residents to operate small, home based businesses that can be an important source of income for some households. Some revisions would help the Island businesses. The zoning reviews that new businesses face seem elaborate to them. In addition, since most businesses are in or next to peoples’s houses, the standard separation of business and residential uses that works on the mainland do not quite fit the circumstances on Chebeague. Finally, there are some land use presently allowed that the committee thought should not be permitted.







III B: Island Economy - Fishing
As the survey of Island business above indicated, marine related activities make up the largest portion of Chebeague's economy, and there is strong support for maintaining the fishery on the Island. Fishing, primarily lobstering, is its main element. There are 38 boats hauling approximately 35,000 traps, making this the largest island fishing community in Casco Bay. Additional marine related services include boat-building and repair, the boatyard and all the functions of the CTC. Since CTC is dealt with in the section on Mainland Transportation, this section primarily focuses on the fishing industry.

Water Access
Easy access to the water is a primary factor in making the island work well for the fishermen. Legally, fishermen have access to the shore across private property to fish or clam. However, this legal right is not as useful as it appears on its face for several reasons. One is simply that property owners may not be aware of this and may object to having their land crossed. The other is that this legal right provides no right to park on private property. Over the past 40 or more years, the traditional fish houses on the shore have been replaced by the use of pickup trucks. Gear is kept at home, which is usually not on the shore, and taken to the shore when needed. This, obviously, requires places to park. This only exists on private land by arrangement with the owner. Most of the public access points which date from the days before cars, have little parking. However, they are even more important than in earlier years because they do provide road access and at least some parking. There are also people who use shore access points with parking to keep boats that they use to get back and forth to the mainland. Some, but not all are Chebeague fishermen. Some are people who come out from the mainland to work on the Island.

There are at least nine access and mooring sites that are used by most of the fishermen as well as others. Several others could be used but are not at present. Access to Chandler's Cove is by a State ferry wharf. There is some public parking and limited area for storing gear. Coleman Cove has no wharf but has parking and some storage. At Jenks Landing there is a public right of way and parking can be leased from a neighbor. At Waldo Point, the access is owned by the Town. Central Landing has two public rights of way granted by the Mayers and Gilmartins, but the area for parking and storage of gear is minimal. The Stone Wharf has storage space and public parking. Some people keep their boats there, and more use it for putting off their traps in the Spring and bringing them in in the Fall. Coleman and Johnson Coves and Central Landing are considered the best sites by the lobstermen as they are closest to the prime areas for setting traps. Some fishermen have access to the shore across their own property. This indicates that access to the shore in general is a concern.

A new wharf will be built by the State at Chandler's Cove, scheduled for 2000. The design will:


At the Stone Wharf the system of closing off eight of the parking spaces during June and November so that fishermen can take their traps off and bring them in seems to work fairly well. The need for parking results from fishermen transporting their traps from their trucks to their boats. At other times of year, the only parking need by the fishermen is for those who keep their boats in the Stone Wharf anchorage.

At a meeting with the fishermen, the need for a new wharf, specifically to accommodate fishing activities, was discussed. Sunset Landing was one obvious site. However, the fishermen recognized the large cost involved in building a wharf. They think that a new facility is not needed, as long as present access sites are legally documented and properly maintained. Also essential to the present system of fishing is being able to keep boats, traps and other gear in outdoor storage at fishermen's houses.

Moorings

The presence of a harbormaster and a mooring permit system provides a legal framework for defining and protecting mooring rights in case of legal challenge. However, the system does not work well. We think that the Town simply collects the permit fee but does not record the location of moorings. There have been problems with other people putting moorings where fishermen have traditionally moored their boats. This is a particular problem at the Stone Wharf. Enforcement is also an issue. The Inn has moorings, but also apparently tells their visitors to moor to any buoy available. The fishermen were skeptical that the kind of mooring registration law used in Freeport would be useful because of its complexity. However, they would like to limit moorings to residents and property owners of the Town of Cumberland.

Aquaculture Leases
The leasing of the bottom to aquaculturists growing mussels is a recent development in Casco Bay. Mussel grow-out rafts, which require deep water and strong tidal flushing could be practical at almost any protected cove or area near the Island, though this does depend on the season and weather conditions as well. The Chebeague fishermen are concerned about the impact of this new fishery on their access to places where they have set their traps in the past. The survey suggests that this is not a widely understood or recognized issue among Islanders who are not lobstermen.

Currently, regulatory authority for aquaculture lease applications rests with the State Department of Marine Resources. In towns where there are existing shellfish ordinances, recent legislation allows the town to govern aquaculture leases throughout the intertidal zone. The DMR continues to govern aquaculture leases in the sub-tidal zone, below low water. However, the town is granted intervener's status, contingent upon their existing shell fishing ordinances. This status assures the town of proper notification when lease applications are filed, and gives the town a strong voice during the public hearing process.

Other Fishing Issues
There are a variety of other issues related to the success of the fishing relating to the Town. These are fairly self-explanatory in the recommendations.



III D: AFFORDABLE HOUSING
If Chebeague is to continue to have a diverse population that includes fishermen, local business people, summer people of diverse incomes and retirees, maintaining the limited supply of affordable housing is essential. Year-round rental housing is scarce, and there are year-round residents who have to move seasonally from house to house as they try to create a permanent home on the Island. Others manage to have year-round houses only with the help of other family members. This issue will become even more pressing if an effort is made to preserve significant amounts of open space. The price of the remaining land will be bid up, so that buying land and building a house will become more and more out of reach of people with modest incomes. So the issue here is not simply to maintain existing affordable housing but to be sure that more is built to serve future Chebeaguers. The goal of this section is to:

DEVELOP STRATEGIES TO MAINTAIN EXISTING AND TO DEVELOP NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING
One obstacle to affordable housing in the future is the ability to retain what’s affordable now. As the most desirable land becomes scarcer, demand to purchase a small or poorly maintained house, especially one on the water, may result in the removal or upgrading of what is now affordable.

More important than houses being torn down , however, is the basic value of land and the impact that increasing land values have on property taxes, and so on affordability. This is a problem everywhere on the Island but is especially accentuated for houses on the shore where the problem can be seen most clearly. A property’s value is based on the market value of both the buildings on it and of the land itself. Because building sites on the shore are both very desirable and scarce, new buyers may be willing to pay very high prices for them. A low-income homeowner may have a modest home on the water and although the home itself is assessed at a moderate value, the land value soars because of sales of “comparable” shoreland, and the taxes become beyond the homeowner’s means. This same dynamic can happen in any area of the Island that is desirable for development. If more land is taken out of the housing market to be preserved as open space, as this plan recommends, the remaining developable land will be more scarce and will increase in value. This increase in the selling price of land will increase assessments and property taxes for all land on Chebeague.

Not surprisingly, lower income families are more heavily burdened by the property tax than more affluent ones. Earlier this year an analysis of the fiscal impact of Cumberland property taxes on low and moderate income people was done for the Town by Planning Decisions Inc.1 It included data for the whole town, including Chebeague. For the 20 percent of the population with the lowest incomes, the average home value was $84,800 in 1998 and this group paid, on average, 9.76 percent of their income in taxes. The proportion of income they spent on property taxes had increased from 6.89 percent in 1990 to the 9.76 in 1998. This compares with an average home value of $143,150 for the top 20 percent, who paid only 3.56 percent of their income in taxes. Among this group, the proportion of their income that they paid in property taxes remained the same since 1990.

How to allow existing low and moderate income homeowners to stay in their homes in the face of this kind of increase in land values and property taxes is a difficult question. The Maine Property Tax Refund Program for low income people, and the Homestead Tax exemption provide some tax relief. It may not do enough to assist homeowners on the water who have seen property taxes rise more than they have in other parts of the Island.

For low income home-owners, especially the elderly, maintaining their houses may also be financially difficult. About 20 percent of Chebeague’s housing stock is rated by the Town Assessor’s Office as being in “minimum” or “below average” condition. Many of these houses may be summer houses or camps, but some are lived in year-round.

Another implication of increasing land values is that construction of new “starter” or less expensive houses is more and more difficult. Land is expensive. Putting in a septic system and a well involves a large initial expense. And having to bring building materials out to the Island is considered to increase costs of construction by about 25 percent.

Finally, year-round rental housing is difficult to provide on Chebeague for several reasons. One is simply that much of the housing is only suitable for summer occupancy. The other is that owners of year-round housing that can be rented face the economic incentive to charge high rents during the summer “season”. This is why some year-round residents, especially younger people who are just getting started economically and have less money, either have to live with family or move from house to house as the seasons change.








III E: Health, Welfare, and Safety

This report focuses on the health, welfare, and safety of the people on CI. The wellness of our people – our human resource - has a direct impact on the general health of our entire community. The goal of this section is to:

WORK TOWARD MAKING THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF CHEBEAGUE RESIDENTS AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE BY PROVIDING EDUCATION ABOUT AND SERVICES TO MAINTAIN PEOPLE’S HEALTH, WELFARE AND SAFETY.

Health

Primary care is usually accessed through mainland physicians and specialists. An on-island PA offers 2-3x/wk office and home visits for acute or chronic care. In addition, she draws blood, and assists with billing, pharmacy deliveries, appointments with specialists, and home care concerns. Our on-island PA is successful.

Home care is an island concern because of access, transportation, and changing programs. Skilled care, often funded by Medicare, is accessed through reliable mainland agencies and privately paid care givers. Non-skilled care, rarely funded by Medicare, and intermittently available through Medicaid is of great concern to this community. It is evident that affordable and readily accessible non-skilled home care can lead to healthier, richer, and more meaningful lives for Chebeaguers. We lack effective home care.

Long term care is a relatively new concept, and will take time to be fully recognized as a natural continuation of primary health care. It involves a great amount of community input, patience, and respect. It starts as is a family issue, then often stressed families need support and help. CCR has set up on-island programs to help educate families on this vast, sometimes non-medical subject.

Preventive care is a sleeper, and often goes unnoticed as an element of well being – for personal and community health. Usually the least costly form of care, several island non-profits are actively advocating for better access to preventive care for all of us.

Emergency care, funded by the Town, staffed by island EMTs, and transported by CTC, is an excellent example of a service partnership. This professional team is respected from all views, and has been noted and recognized as a true lifeline from any home on Chebeague to the ER.

Welfare
Personal Welfare involves responsibilities of individuals and families. Sources of support and assistance are available on the island or through the Town, but must be sought out. Personal welfare becomes a community concern when a need is so great that another person must act for the recipient. Awareness, education, advocacy and responsibility are essential tools to ease and comfort those in the process of helping themselves. A most tender subject for the recipient, there are sources of help. We need to talk about this more openly.
Community Welfare on Chebeague is widely accepted as culturally, emotionally, physically, and financially possible. Many island organizations participate in programs and activities that benefit all people, all ages. Two concerns, however, are voiced by islanders: affordable child care and substance abuse among the island’s youth. The needed, flexible child care is not easy to provide, and the best way to deal with this at this point may be just to reduce barriers to providing child care. Substance abuse among island youngsters continues to be uncontrolled, and of great concern to Chebeaguers. The apparent lack of existing enforcement is seen as a contributing factor.

Safety
Personal, home and community safety hazards are threats to the general health and welfare of the island. Concerned citizens, health professionals, and fire, police and rescue officials must continue to work together to help prevent accidents, falls, and life threatening attacks. When people fail to recognize and implement acceptable safety practices, the issues then become a common or community concern. This means safety then becomes an enforcement issue.

Summary of Concerns:

  1. Holes in the existing system of child care.
  2. Reluctance of people to ask for help,
  3. Insufficient research conducted for people discharged from mainland facilities to their island homes,
  4. Health insurance opportunities for greater numbers of island families,
  5. Fearful and often dehumanizing process to receive affordable medical help,
  6. Surprisingly small numbers of island people in assistance programs,
  7. Lack of adequate non-skilled home care on the island,
  8. Little to no enforcement of substance abuse laws among island youngsters, and
  9. Empty beds at Island Commons.


Positive notes:

  1. Island organizations and programs are providing many helpful services.
  2. Island people care about each other, and will advocate for them and help them.
  3. Town police, rescue, fire, and public works departments work in partnership with island people to enhance health, welfare, and safety.
  4. CTC (transportation to the mainland) is our ultimate lifeline.
  5. Our island PA has proved to be a major influence upon the quality of life of our older population.











III F: Chebeague Schools
These recommendations to S. A. D. 51, the Town of Cumberland and the Chebeague community rest on the assumption that high quality educational opportunities are essential to the future of the Island. Attracting and keeping young families is crucial to maintaining a diverse, year round economy and community on the Island. We seek to sustain the strengths in the present school situation and remedy the deficiencies. Therefore, the goal of this section is to

MAINTAIN A QUALITY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS FROM PRESCHOOL THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL

Schooling on Chebeague
In one dimension the history of schools on CI is a story of decline and loss. From the late nineteenth century to the present enrollment in Chebeague schools dropped from the largest in the town of Cumberland (larger even than all of the town’s mainland schools put together) to the smallest in the town. In the years since World War II, the Island lost its high school, then the junior high, so that now the Island School provides only kindergarten and six grades of multi grade elementary education with two teachers. Since the higher level schools closed, Chebeague children have commuted by boat and bus to mainland schools from seventh grade through high school. And some Chebeague families are sending children across the water to elementary grades on the mainland, or schooling them at home. These facts suggest that the surviving CI School may be in jeopardy.

Yet the CI School draws praise from parents, teachers and administrators in School Administrative District 51. The Island School’s proponents cite the quality of education that a favorable teacher/student ratio (superior to any other school in the district) and effective multi age teaching make possible. On the other hand, the advantages of the CI School are also the sources of its limitations. Smallness may bring educational shortcomings as well. In any given year, particular grades in our K-6 program may have no students or only a single student enrolled or an imbalance of genders.2 And in the later years (grades 4-6), when sequential learning of certain subjects such as mathematics becomes more important, it may be difficult to provide for each student particular courses in the order he or she needs.

Chebeague children with special needs schooled on the Island may be less well served, in a less timely way, than their counterparts on the mainland. While the system does provide these services, the circumstances of island living and transportation make it harder to deliver services these children need. Island teachers and parents must be more aggressive than mainlanders in assessment of students’ needs and insistence that special education staff come to the students rather than transporting the children to the service provider. Services for challenged or gifted students are available within SAD 51’s excellent system, but delivery of them to Chebeaguers can be problematic.
The success of the Chebeague School depends even more heavily than in other school situations on who is teaching and on persistent involvement by parents in their children’s educations. When good veteran teachers, experienced in multi age classes, familiar with the structure, resources and decision-making processes of SAD 51 and positive toward Chebeague’s distinctive community and way of life, teach in the Island School, things go well. Openness to the Island and to parental concerns is a requirement for Chebeague teachers to succeed in educating our children. Similarly, the Island School is at its best when parents take a sustained interest in the experiences and education of their children and communicate regularly with their teachers. Since the Island enjoys a population diverse in background, but joined by allegiance to a shared way of life, any problems related to diversity among students within the school may be resolved by communication and cooperation among parents and teachers.

Schooling off Chebeague
When Chebeague children commute to mainland schools, they face the challenge of joining a separate and larger community of students. By all reports from Cumberland school officials, academic integration is not a problem for commuting Chebeaguers. Well prepared, except perhaps
for some children with special needs, island children move readily into their classes on the mainland, exhibiting the same diversity as their mainland counterparts. But the Chebeaguers encounter an already established social structure, which they may find difficult to enter, especially because of transportation schedules. The present arrangements for transport – the Chebeague Transportation Company’s ferryboats and the school busses – impede Chebeague children’s participation in weekday evening and weekend activities unless parents make special efforts to include them in sports and other extracurricular activities. These efforts are virtually impossible for families where both parents work full-time. Even then, the present CTC ferry schedule keeps both students and parents from full participation in week night evening events, unless they stay overnight on the mainland. The commuting routine, with normal departure from school by bus to the ferry as soon as the school day ends, is presently supplemented by a late afternoon bus that enables Chebeague children to take part in after school activities and return home in time for supper.

We were surprised to discover that there is no emergency plan in case normal transportation between the mainland schools and the Island is disrupted by severe weather or mechanical breakdown. If Chebeague children were stranded on the mainland, the school authorities would need to improvise arrangements for their care until transportation was restored.

Distance and transportation are the principal obstacles to the integration of Chebeague children into the Cumberland schools. These factors also may be barriers to appreciation of the island way of life by mainland families and their school children, most of whom know little about Chebeague. There is evidence that ignorance fosters in some mainlanders prejudiced toward Chebeague as remote and inaccessible, isolated and backward, with little to offer the more rapidly growing, seemingly more cosmopolitan and increasingly suburban coastal town. Such attitudes suggest that Chebeague children may be stereotyped as different, out of the mainstream, needing less education, likely to lead insular lives on the island they come from. However, not everyone agrees that this problem exists or that it is useful to raise it.

Preparation for Jobs, Careers and Further Education
In the high school years, the course of study prepares students for post-secondary education, vocational, technical or collegiate. Our inquiries left some doubt as to whether Chebeague students are encouraged to view high school as a stepping stone to further education or training that would enhance their success or enlarge their opportunities in jobs or careers. There is some evidence that when Chebeague families deal with mainland school teachers or counselors they are less assertive than more suburban mainlanders. In some cases, it may be assumed by the mainland school or the island family that the student will take up a traditional island occupation for which schooling beyond high school is irrelevant and unnecessary. But it is not clear that all Chebeague students and their families have the opportunity to understand and consider pursuing the benefits of further education The resources for assisting all Chebeague families with educational choices for their sons and daughters are available in the Cumberland schools, but the use of these resources appears to be uneven.

CI’s Contribution to School Funding
It is not well understood that the magnitude of the Island’s financial contribution to SAD 51 is substantial. The district has kindly enabled us to develop these figures by providing per pupil costs for 1996. This 17 page analysis of all costs shows that the per pupil cost for Chebeague in 1996 was $9,413. There were 42 students enrolled in that year. For comparison, the per pupil cost for mainland schools was $6,328. On might initially conclude that educating Chebeague children is more expensive, with the district paying out an additional an additional $3,085 per pupil for that purpose, and that the Island enjoys a premium in educational benefits.

But if we examine the Island’s contribution to school tax revenues in relation to expenditures for the schooling of Islanders in 1996, we reach a different conclusion. Expenditures for education and libraries in the Town of Cumberland for that year were $5,681,000. The Island’s share of
this, based on percentage of taxes paid, was 12 per cent. Hence the total contribution by Island taxpayers to SAD 51 was 0.12 x $5,681,000 = $681,720. Since the Island school population was 42, the per pupil tax revenue contributed by Island tax payers in 1996 was $681,720/42 or $16,231 per student. Comparison of the 1996 revenue per pupil ($16,231) with the 1996 cost per pupil ($9,413) shows that the Island paid $6,818 over and above the SAD 51 costs for educating CI’s school population. Hence Chebeague, in a sense, provides surplus revenues to SAD 51.

This imbalance is not well known or understood. The key point: Chebeague is paying substantially more than its proportional share for education. It is for this reason that the Island urges SAD 51 to recognize the substantial premium that Chebeague is paying to the district. It is entirely reasonable, therefore, for the Island to expect comparable educational resources, services and facilities to the mainland.

Communication and Representation
At present communication between Chebeague families and the school district leadership comprises regular meetings on Chebeague of school authorities with an active parents’ advisory committee and occasional meetings on the Island of the SAD # 51 Board of Directors, on which no Chebeague resident presently sits. While these occasions for dialogue and identification of problems have been productive, we found considerable interest in supplementing them with additional bodies and opportunities for school and community collaboration.




IV A: TRANSPORTATION TO THE MAINLAND

During most of the 20th century, Chebeague has been served by two providers of ferry services. In the early 20th century both Casco Bay Lines and theHarpswell Steam Ship Company served Chebeague. Since the 1930's, Chebeague has been served with public ferry service both by Casco Bay Lines from Portland, and an inner-bay service, first from Portland, then from Falmouth and, since 1959, from the Cousins Island wharf at Doyle Point on Cousins Island in Yarmouth.

Today the inner-bay service is based on Chebeague and is operated by Chebeague Transportation Company. It has become Chebeague's primary carrier of passengers handling 90% of the passenger volume with Casco Bay Lines carrying the remaining 10%. CTC operates 8-10 trips per day year-round on vessels licensed to carry 58-119 passengers. Casco Bay Lines provides 4-5 trips per day serving Chebeague on vessels licensed to carry 300-400 passengers and is the primary shipper of freight to Chebeague.

Together CTC and CBL provide the "roads" connecting Chebeague to the mainland highway system. These roads, however, are narrow lanes and, in the case of the inner-bay service, in danger of disappearing entirely due to impassioned controversy surrounding the use of the Cousins Island wharf and Blanchard parking lot for the past 40 years. The goal of this section is to:

ASSURE AFFORDABLE AND RELIABLE FERRY TRANSPORTATION CONNECTING CHEBEAGUE WITH THE MAINLAND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS BOTH IN PORTLAND AND ON COUSINS ISLAND.

Passenger Service

Casco Bay Lines ("CBL") operated by Casco Bay Island Transit District ("CBITD") runs from the Maine State Pier on the Portland waterfront to Chandler's Cove at the West End of Chebeague. CBITD was established by the legislature in 1981 upon the bankruptcy of the former private ferry
operator. CBITD is a political subdivision of the State of Maine encompassing Peaks, Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long, Chebeague and Cliff Islands located in the City of Portland and Towns of Long Island and Cumberland.

Chebeague Transportation Company ("CTC") runs from the Stone Wharf at the East End of Chebeague to the Yarmouth Town Wharf at Doyle Point on Cousins Island in Yarmouth. CTC undertook ferry operations following the retirement of the former sole proprietor who began operating water taxi services in his lobster boat on the last leg of the inner-bay route abandoned by CBL after the completion of the bridge from the mainland to Cousins Island in 1959. CTC's ferry operations are conducted in a business corporation that was originally capitalized through the purchase of shares by residents of hebeague and now operates as a common-carrier on a break-even basis as a public service.

Use of the Cousins Island wharf on Doyle Point at the foot of Wharf Road on Cousins Island in Yarmouth for the provision of ferry service is integral to CTC's operations. The wharf has been used as a ferry landing for at least a century. When the bridge linking Cousins Island to the mainland ended the need for the inner-bay ferry service to Cousins and Littlejohn islands, the Cousins Island wharf changed, from being the arrival point to Cousins Island, to being the mainland terminus of the last leg of that inner-bay service which continues to run between Cousins and Chebeague.

Because of the greater time needed to travel the longer distance between Portland and Chebeague, and due to the destinations north of Portland needing access by Chebeaguers, particularly students and other personnel of the SAD 51 schools, and the Chebeague Rescue which connects with the Cumberland Rescue, CTC provides about 90% of Chebeague's passenger transportation services. Among its users are seasonal residents who own and pay taxes on about 300 Chebeague properties. Many of these people have been coming to Chebeague for generations. The seasonal population provides the "critical mass" necessary to make a year-round ferry service economically feasible.

In the mid-1980's, perceived growth in the use of the wharf and public concern surrounding the scarcity of coastal access, lead to an agreement between the towns of Yarmouth and Cumberland for use of the wharf by CTC from 1989 through the end of 1999. This agreement was intended as a 10 year growth moratorium while the towns worked to find an alternative site for a permanent ferry landing location. In addition to limiting the number of daily ferry landings and the size of ferry vessels to 1989 levels, the 1989 agreement contemplated Yarmouth's adoption of traffic ordinances restricting use of Wharf Road beyond the entrance to the Blanchard Lot limiting commercial deliveries to the wharf and prohibiting access to the wharf-head by private vehicles on weekends from May through September. These ordinances have come to be called the "over-the-hill" rules.

Notwithstanding the protections to their community represented by the10-year agreement and the restricted access accomplished by the over-the-hill rules, residents of the wharf neighborhood petitioned for a municipal referendum in November of 1989. If it had been successful, the referendum would have rejected the 10-year agreement and, in its place, impose confiscatory landing fees on the ferry service designed to make it unaffordable for the users and drive it out of business. Wide-spread support among Yarmouth citizens for Chebeague's need for access to the mainland via Cousins Island, however, worked to defeat the referendum by a two-thirds majority in November of 1989.

In the early 1990's Cumberland and Yarmouth worked together to analyze other possible landing sites and found no alternatives other than undeveloped land on Spruce Point at the Wyman Power Station on Cousins Island. At that time, Central Maine Power expressed interest in a sale of the Spruce Point land if agreement could be reached between the towns. In 1995 negotiations between the towns broke down over access restrictions on Cousins Island Road and Maine's Department of Transportation was asked to assist the communities to resolve the situation.

In 1996 MDOT empanelled a group of representatives from both communities known as the Chebeague/Cousins Transportation Resolution Team. The Resolution Team was charged with the task of making recommendations to MDOT on a permanent resolution of the controversy by selecting an alternative site acceptable two both communities. The Spruce Point site was unanimously identified in 1997 along with a set of guidelines on its use including a Mainland Access Authority to manage future growth. After studying this recommendation for over a year and reviewing all 23 alternative sites considered by the Resolution Team, MDOT determined both that the Spruce Point location is not available due to the impossibility of obtaining
necessary environmental permits for construction of the new wharf in an environmentally sensitive marine habitat, and that no other practical alternative to the existing Cousins Island wharf exists.

In July of 1998 MDOT announced that the current wharf location would serve as the permanent mainland access point for the inner-bay ferry service. MDOT said that they would preserve the status quo and, with the agreement of both towns, improve the situation.

The first step in maintaining the status quo was MDOT's acquisition of the Blanchard Lot in October of 1999 (discussed below) and considerable work has been undertaken to obtain a new agreement on the use and future maintenance of the Cousins Island wharf upon the expiration of the 1989 Wharf Agreement at the end of 1999. Negotiation of a long-term agreement including a mainland access authority with representatives from both towns and MDOT failed in the fall of 1999.

The 1989 agreement expired without a new agreement in place on January 1, 2000, but Yarmouth has consistently provided assurances that access will be maintained. In fact, a 10-year agreement providing for limited growth acceptable to Cumberland was conditionally approved by the Yarmouth Town Council in February of 2000. Yarmouth conditioned its approval, however, on changes to the Blanchard Lot lease agreement between MDOT and Cumberland. Restrictions on the Blanchard Lot had not previously been linked to use of the Cousins Island wharf and have thus far been unacceptable to MDOT and Cumberland.

Parking and Highway Access
Since neither of Chebeague's ferries is a car ferry, parking, both on the island and the mainland, is a necessary component of any island transportation system.

Parking at Chandler's Cove is limited to about 10 cars (although upon completion of major wharf renovations by MDOT early in 2001 this number may almost double). In Portland's Old Port district there are various garages and lots at varying distances from the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal, and the residents of all six islands compete with city dwellers, commuting office workers, Old Port shoppers and tourists for them. METRO buses run to the Terminal which is located at the foot of the Old Port shopping and commercial district.

The Stone Wharf has approximately 70 parking spaces, but is still woefully inadequate. Mainland parking areas for CTC's passengers are located at two sites. The Blanchard lot provides 165 parking spaces located within walking distance of the wharf on Cousins Island. A new satellite lot, operated from mid-April through the New Year's holiday, provides 300 parking spaces accessed by a 6.3 mile shuttle bus ride to a fourteen acre site located on Route 1 near Exit 16 of I-95. The proximity of the satellite lot to the Cousins Island dock and to the two major north-south arteries is anticipated to make access comparatively easier than the former remote lot in Cumberland Center. The land for the Satellite Lot was given to Cumberland by MDOT and the Town financed the approximate $200,000 cost of development of the parking facility with a lease to CTC at its cost.
Access to the wharf head on Cousins Island is both physically limited by geography and legally restricted by Yarmouth's (so called) "over the hill" ordinances. The physical limits of the current road and turn-around area at the wharf-head prevent shuttle buses from turning around at the wharf head. Consequently they must back down the hill from the entrance to the Blanchard Lot sounding back-up warning alarms that disturb the neighborhood. The over-the-hill access restrictions limit commercial deliveries to the dock and prohibit private vehicles from driving beyond the entrance to the Blanchard Lot on weekends during May through September unless physically handicapped passengers are being dropped off.

MDOT has offered to work with both towns to improve the road way and turn-around area in order both to relax the over-the-hill access restrictions, and to permit the use of smaller shuttle buses that are expected to turn around at the wharf head after the road and turn-around are reconstructed. Further, MDOT has offered to provide 80% of the funding (i.e., $300,000) for acquisition of the smaller buses as a means of ameliorating neighborhood noise created by the back-up alarms of the current shuttle buses.

The 20% local share (i.e., $60,000) of the capital cost of these buses is expected to be provided by Cumberland, but the increased operating cost of staffing more buses with additional drivers will be born by users of the ferry service. The cost of design and construction of improvements to the
road and turn-around, as well as the $600,000 cost of acquisition of the Blanchard Lot, will be shared by MDOT and the Town of Cumberland on an 80/20 ratio, respectively. The design budget established by MDOT is set at $200,000, but the cost of construction is not yet known.

MDOT's lease of the Blanchard Lot to Cumberland limits parking for the next 50 years to 165 spaces, including 15 spaces with priority for Yarmouth residents. Historically it was privately operated by Robert Blanchard, but for the past 20 years or so it was leased to CTC under a long-term lease expiring at the end of 1999. Faced with the expiration of this arrangement, MDOT acquired the Blanchard Lot in 1999 for a price of $600,000 and has made it available as part of the public ferry transportation system operated by CTC through a lease to the Town of Cumberland and sublease to CTC for $1.00 per year, but this arrangement is currently being challenged in court by the former owner.

Prior to the current litigation, the competing needs of the Cousins Island community and users of CTC's ferry service had been the subject of litigation three times since 1976 resulting in a series of court ordered consent decrees regulating levels of parking and barging activities. The capacity of the Blanchard Lot has been inadequate for many years and operation of shuttle bus services and remote parking between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends has historically been the solution proposed by Cousins Island residents to protect the neighborhood from the burden of summer traffic. Physical and legal limits on the number of cars that can park at the Blanchard Lot causes use of the Satellite Lot to continue long after summer cottages near the Cousins Island wharf have been closed for the season. Year-round resident needs for parking have increased to the point that it may become necessary to ask year-round people to accept spaces in the Satellite lot and run the shuttle bus service all year at a cost of approximately $5,000 per month for shuttle bus operations. This need is driven, not by a significant increase in population on Chebeague, but by an increase in Island residents seeking access to mainland employment opportunities and the pressure on island residents to maintain automobiles on the mainland in order to participate in an increasingly car-dependent society.
In 1997 MDOT's Chebeague/Cousins Transportation Resolution Team recommended that parking near the wharf be increased from the current 165 car limit, to 286 (with provision for further future expansion) in order to permit shuttle bus operations to cease after Columbus Day, but this recommendation was predicated on the development of a new site for wharf and parking facilities located on land adjacent to the Wyman Power Station on Cousins Island. MDOT was unable to implement the recommendation due to permitting difficulties with the site, but the fact remains that a balanced group of representatives from both communities recognized an immediate need for additional parking for Chebeaguers near the wharf.

The harsh fact remains that use of the Satellite Lot and costly shuttle bus operations, originally intended for summer residents, can now be suspended only from early January to mid-April. Now that MDOT has determined that the site for mainland access for Chebeague will permanently remain at the Cousins Island Wharf, the need for more parking near the Wharf must be addressed in the future.

Barging and Freight
Transportation of vehicles of all kinds is critical to the functioning of an Island community. CTC's 100-ton barge predominantly transports private autos and small to medium sized trucks on a tide-dependent schedule between the beach at the Blanchard Lot and a vehicle ramp on the Stone Wharf. CTC's barge operations are legally restricted to operate only between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM Tuesdays through Thursdays. In 1997 CTC's barge carried 519 vehicles.

Other barge operations in Casco Bay include Lionel Plante Associates and Intercoastal Marine, operating principally from Portland's east end beach. These companies each have two barges with larger carrying capacities than CTC's. These barges generally land on the beach at Bennett's Cove on the West End of Chebeague due to its proximity to Portland. They are not allowed to land on Cousins Island.

CBL carries the United States Mail, UPS, and Fed Ex, as well as commercially shipped groceries, appliances, and other large household items on its passenger vessels (one of which is equipped with a crane for transferring freight). Also one or two cars can be carried on the Maquoit II.

CTC handles smaller items, including groceries and supplies-- most of them hand-carried by the passengers -- on its passenger vessel.







IV B: TRANSPORTATION ON CHEBEAGUE

Chebeague's road system and the access points to various wharves and landing places were established before cars became the dominant form of transportation. Over the years, roads have been upgraded to allow for cars, and parking has been created for them in places where people gather, such as at stores, public buildings and ferry docks. Sometimes this accommodation to cars has been satisfactory and sometimes it is inadequate. But one of the characteristics of the Island is that cars and their needs have never become as dominant as they are on the mainland. The goals for transportation on the Island are to:

ENSURE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE ROADS WITHOUT CHANGING THEIR BASIC CHARACTER.

PROVIDE ADEQUATE PUBLIC PARKING ARRANGEMENTS AT WHARVES AND OTHER PLACES WHERE IT IS NEEDED.

Because a substantial part of the passenger, freight and commercial fishing activity is focused on Chandler Cove Wharf and the Stone Wharf, conflicts among uses, safety and parking have been chronic issues for many years. Especially at the Stone Wharf, the growth of the CTC as the Island's major transportation link to the mainland, has brought these issues to the fore and has resulted in a series of past proposals for dealing with them. These proposals, including the one to have a new wharf at Sunset Landing have led to some improvements but no major resolution of the conflicts.

There seems to be a some agreement on the Island, at least among the fishermen and at the CTC, that another wharf is not needed. This judgment is conditional on the State's reconstruction of the Chandler Cove wharf and the Stone Wharf being adequately maintained and perhaps enlarged by the Town. State DOT is in the process of planning for the reconstruction of the Chandler Cove wharf. Parking for the new wharf will be increased.

As the Long-Range Planning Committee discussed options for dealing with parking at the Stone Wharf, however, it became evident that this is one of the most contentious issues that it is examining. There are many users and abutters -- fishermen, people taking the CTC ferry, people barging on the CTC barge, recreational boaters, workmen coming over to the Island in their own boats, the owners of the historic Kendall house next to the wharf, and golfers using the Golf Course that comes almost down to the water, with a tee on the wharf itself. After several discussions, the Committee decided that the most realistic recommendation on this issue would be to have a separate process to try to find solutions to these conflicts.

Roads and Traffic

Today there are about 350 registered (functioning as opposed to junked) cars on the Island. Because additional cars are brought out during the summer, there may be 250 to 300 cars being driven around during the winter and between 500 and 600, at any given time during the summer. The Island now has 10.3 miles of paved public road and 4.7 miles of public gravel roads. There are many more private gravel roads, sometimes serving one house, but often providing access to several. Besides using cars, residents also get around on the Island by walking and biking. Chebeague now has a 30 mph speed limit, set by State DOT in 1997. The issue now is to educate people that there is a speed limit and what it is. At present there are no speed limit signs on the Island.

Chebeague has a few "major" paved public roads -- North, South, Cottage, John Small and the roads to the ferry docks. There additional unpaved public roads, like the crossroads. But most of the other roads on the Island are unpaved private roads that may have begun as driveways for one house, but now often serve several.

Design standards for roads insure that they are accessible to service vehicles that need to use them, especially the fire trucks and ambulance, but also the school bus, police car and snowplows. Standards normally apply to public roads but can cover private roads as well. On the mainland the Comprehensive Plan has a policy that the Town should not allow private roads that do not conform to Town design standards. This is because it is not uncommon for owners of private roads, after a while, to ask the Town to take them over as public roads, especially for snow plowing. When standards for private roads were recently adopted on the mainland, however, Chebeague was largely exempt from them because so many more of the roads on the Island are private.

It may make sense to have specific road design standards on Chebeague to strike a balance that is suitable to the Island between the need to provide adequate access for vehicles, and the desire to not have roads that are "over designed" -- too wide, too straight or too paved. New public roads are not built often, but new subdivisions do have them. And as development continues on the Island and private roads often serve several houses, it may make sense to set some specific standards for private roads as well.

Road Maintenance
The condition of Chebeague's roads ranked 12th overall among the Town services rated on the questionnaire, and 13th, or last, among year-round residents. On the other hand, this could be an expensive item. In making the calculation of whether it is useful to spend money on road maintenance, it is essential to have some understanding about road condition, maintenance and maintenance costs.

Regular and timely maintenance of roads, even ones that don't carry a lot of traffic, is essential if the roads are to remain usable. The basic "take home" message is that the least costly option is to do routine and preventive maintenance of roads when they are in good condition.

Many island's paved roads show signs of distress -- alligatoring of the surface, potholes and tire ruts . If these processes are not reversed, the cost to bring roads up to an acceptable condition can be many times more expensive than the cost of timely repair. Allowing a road's condition to deteriorate from "fair" to "very poor" will increase repair costs five times. In recent years DPW has focused primarily on "road", rather than "surface" maintenance. They have been renewing the drainage ditches besides the roads. Proper drainage underneath the road is necessary for the pavement on top to last. However, surface maintenance has been limited to patching.

In the Town's detailed 1999 Pavement Management Study done by Casey and Godfrey, Engineers, 34 percent of Chebeague's paved road mileage was rated as less than "fair" (very poor, poor and poor/fair), 36 percent was "fair" and the balance of 32 percent was graded better than fair (fair/good, good or very good). If little or no maintenance is done, by 2003, 86 percent of the paved mileage on Chebeague would be in poorer than fair condition. To maintain our current road conditions, that is, to stop normal deterioration from fair to poor, our surface maintenance budget would need to increase from its current $15,000 to $50,000 per year.

The Town has exhausted the supply of gravel in the present gravel pit. One way to reduce the cost of road maintenance would be to open a new gravel pit.

Paper Streets

When land is subdivided for development the individual or company that creates the subdivision lays out streets to provide access to it. These are deeded to the Town. In some cases development of the subdivision never takes place or is much less than the developer hoped. This was true of a number of subdivisions on Chebeague at the turn of the 20th century. In other cases the road may be built initially but later is absorbed into adjoining private property. In either case, the roads go on existing on the Town's books as "paper streets". The Maine State Legislature has adopted a law requiring towns to review all their paper streets and decide whether they want to keep their claims or let them lapse. These paper streets can be a valuable asset to Chebeague, in particular, since they are often located in subdivisions laid out on the shore.

Cumberland has commissioned Donna Damon to study Chebeague's paper streets in detail. She has made recommendations to the Town Planner on the streets in the Nubble View and Waldo Point subdivisions, and is completing a report on Sunset Landing. She has several other studies that still need to be done.







V Island’s Relationship with Cumberland
Chebeague is part of the Town of Cumberland. This is both a statement of obvious fact and an affirmation of that fact. Affirmation is necessary because there are many characteristics of the town that create inevitable tensions between Chebeaguers and both residents of the mainland and the Town government. We develop a series of recommendations to create institutionalized structures and processes to overcome these tensions. The goal of this section is to:

INCREASE INSTITUTIONALIZED INTERACTION AND COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CHEBEAGUE RESIDENTS AND TOWN POLICY-MAKING AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIALS

As towns go, Cumberland is unusual in being partly on the mainland and partly on an island. Portland, of course, faces the same situation, and tensions with Long Island ultimately lead to its succession.

At the simplest level, Chebeague is an unconnected island. Our most used ferry service lands in Yarmouth. The new "remote" parking lot for the CTC is almost in Yarmouth. Once Chebeaguers get to the mainland, Cumberland Center and the Town Office is still a 20 to 30 minute drive away. Many Chebeague residents are summer people who hardly know mainland Cumberland and don't follow Town affairs. On the other side, most mainland Cumberland residents have probably never been to Chebeague because the trip is cumbersome and expensive. So the old saying "out of sight, out of mind" seem relevant on both sides.

At the next level, institutional and governmental structures have allowed a political distance to develop. The shift from the Town Meeting to the Council Manager form of government in the early 1970s is one factor. In yearly Town Meeting, islanders and mainlanders had to argue, negotiate and trade off over ordinances and the budget. Now, the Town administration is more professionalized and the Council, on which Chebeague is represented, is more distant.

The separation between the Town government and MSAD 51 which spends a substantial amount of our tax money makes the situation more complicated. Many Islanders do not realize that they operate completely separately and that Town taxes have not risen in the same manner as school taxes.

Many necessary "practical" actions on the part of the Town and the Island accentuate the distance. Planning for growth management and open space, for example, has taken place separately for the mainland and for Chebeague. Of course Chebeaguers would not want a committee made up primarily of mainlanders to be recommending policies for them, but the process initially created some comments. The comprehensive property reevaluation of 1996 provoked many questions on Chebeague about whether we were getting our "share" of Town services; but probably mainlanders were asking the same question.

On the planning survey there was a question that tried to find out about residents' perceptions about Islanders' roles in Town and MSAD 51 decision-making and the responsiveness of those governmental units to the Island's concerns. One of the most interesting things about the responses was the number of people who felt they just did not have enough information to answer. This was especially true of summer people, about 25 percent of whom did not answer in relation to the Town. Of course they are not around as much, generally cannot vote, and may not want to be paying attention to political issues when they are on vacation. But they do pay taxes and do get involved on issues like the property reevaluation and the CTC's dispute with Yarmouth.

Year-round residents, for their part considered both that Islanders were not enough involved in Town government and that the Town was not responsive enough on Island issues. The scale ranged from 1 (not enough involvement/responsiveness) to 5 (too much involvement/responsiveness). The general pattern was a majority who gave scores of 1 or 2, and a substantial minority who gave a score of 3 indicating that involvement and responsiveness was "about right". The mean evaluation by year-round residents of Islander involvement was 2.21, and of Town responsiveness was 2.05.

Like questions about taxes, questions about the responsiveness of government bay tap into some generalized cynicism or discontent. Respondents' specific evaluation of "general government services" provided by the Town was actually quite high, with a mean of 5.08 or a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). But in their evaluations here, respondents did not spare Islanders either, saying, on average, that they should be more involved. Some people also did comment in the open-ended questions that Islanders should work more on having better relations with the Town.

Common Interests and Needs
Despite the tensions, Chebeague and the mainland have much in common and Chebeague certainly needs and benefits from being part of the Town. The mainland wants to preserve some if its agricultural character and heritage in the face of suburbanization. Chebeague wants to preserve its fishing industry in the face of development for summer people and retirees "from away".

More important, since the shift to the Council/Manager system, the Town has had a unified budget that does not distinguish between mainland and island expenditures. Chebeague has a small year-round population, about 5 percent of the Town, and some Island services have higher costs than on the mainland because of things like the expense of transportation. Over the last several years it has gotten about 11.5 percent of Town expenditures including capital items. Chebeague pays about 13 percent of the Town's taxes. Is this fair? This was a big issue after the comprehensive reassessment.

A study began several years ago and proceeded with the cooperation of Bob Benson, Melody Main and the various department heads to identify those elements of the town budget that reflect services for CI. If we choose to examine this on a fairness “criteria”, it is true, there is a disparity as CI taxes representing 13% of the total while we represent 5% of the population for 2000. However, as this planning effort has proceeded, it has become clear, that such concerns are not the major issue. The real issue is not “fairness” as the mainland’s needs are different than CI’s. Rather what is required is to evaluate what CI needs and then examine whether those needs have been reasonably met.
When this analysis was presented a year ago, the consensus was established that the budgeting mechanisms now in place does in fact reasonably serve the island’s needs. For the first time we now know what the Island’s budget is. This information may be extracted from the spread sheets used by our town manager that he submits to the Council. With this information we are informed as to what is currently being spent in relation to what the island’s peculiar needs are and will be available on the island for those interested in this data.









1 Planning Decisions, Inc. 2000. Analysis of the Fiscal Impacts on Low and Moderate Income Households: Town of Cumberland. Part of the Residential Fiscal Impact Project.

2 In 200-2001 it is anticipated total enrollment will be 26, but there will be no students in the 4th grade.


 

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