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A wave of migration in the pandemic years coupled with historic underproduction of new housing pushed prices and values up, and middle- to low-income earners out of affordable homeownership. While the heavily populated southern part of the state has gotten most of the attention, Zillow data shows that home values have actually skyrocketed most in an odd mix of inland towns.

Source: Bangor Daily News

“The family has always considered the portion of road by their land abandoned, and therefore their private property.

But not everyone in town agrees: Officials mentioned at multiple meetings last summer that the road is open to the public, Hadyniak said, and that the family is illegally posting it. The Hadyniak’s wooden barricades were run over by an ATV later that month, and shortly after, a private property sign was vandalized to say “town road open to public.”

Now, Hadyniak, an attorney, is representing his family in a lawsuit against the town, claiming ownership of part of the road. The town is fighting back, wracking up thousands in legal fees, paid by taxpayers, to counter that the family is obstructing a public right of way.”

CentralMaine.com

The state says the floating camps are blocking the views from houses and camps onshore, posing pollution risks, and creating congestion at public docks and boat ramps. Some are even being used as seasonal rental properties.

Because they are not solidly onshore, these camps are beyond the reach of private property boundaries and shore regulations that protect the water and fishery from pollution. And because Maine doesn’t have a clear definition of what is a boat and what isn’t, there’s no consensus of what regulations apply to the structures.

Source: Bangor Daily News 

Sears Island in Searsport will be the state’s new wind port site, where turbines and other components will be assembled and shipped to the Gulf of Maine, Gov. Janet Mills announced Tuesday.

Source: Press Herald

Soil Preparation Inc., the private Plymouth-based company that owns the plant, was bringing in out-of-state sludge and local waste to process into farmland fertilizer. It had placed standpipes with sprinkler heads throughout the woods between its and Seavey’s properties to disperse the wastewater it had squeezed out of the sludge, a mixture of human, food and other waste that was about 80 percent liquid.

Source: Bangor Daily News

Maine Yankee, which in 1997 shut down its nuclear plant on Bailey Point and transferred 542 metric tons of radioactive waste into canisters there, paid annual property taxes to the town under an agreement that expired last year. The two sides have been unable to reach a new tax agreement and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection last year granted Maine Yankee a tax exemption based on a state law that gives breaks to industrial facilities for reducing air pollution.

Source: Press Herald

Communities across the state, from Kittery to Fort Kent and from the shoreline to the western mountains, are looking to the government to help them prepare for Maine’s warmer, wetter future, including more frequent and ferocious storms and a fast-warming, continually rising Gulf of Maine.

Source: Storm-battered Maine communities look to state funding to prepare for warmer, wetter future

A new requirement that all Falmouth short-term renters register their properties, with hefty fines for those who don’t comply, is drawing mixed reactions from owners and residents. The ordinance, approved by the Town Council July 26, stems from residents’ concerns about noise and congestion coming from vacation rentals like those advertised on sites such as Airbnb, according to Town Councilor Hope Cahan.

Source: Portland Press Herald

Portland city councilors narrowly approved the creation of a new historic district on Munjoy Hill and unanimously agreed to study the impacts of the city’s other historic districts, some of which have existed since the early ’90s. The 5-4 vote in support of the new historic district came more than two months after the council rejected the same proposal, and City Councilor Andrew Zarro, who initially opposed the plan, asked to reconsider the proposal.

Source: Portland Press Herald