A long-range plan for an east-west road can move forward now that a feud involving two prominent South Portland families – the Wainwrights and Maiettas – and several piles of dirt is headed toward resolution, city officials said Monday night.

The South Portland City Council reviewed a legal agreement Monday that will bring to an end Theodore Wainwright’s five-year-old claim against the city. The retired farmer alleged that loam was removed improperly from land he sold the city for close to $1 million.

Wainwright had claimed Maietta Construction, which the city hired to develop the Highland Avenue property as playing fields, removed topsoil, although deed restrictions forbade it.

The unusual settlement presented to the Council Monday requires the city to cover part of Wainwright’s legal costs, name the new east-west road after him and publicly admit that loam was removed.

The city will pay $57,500, and Maietta Construction’s insurance company will pay $22,500. No one acknowledges wrongdoing in the settlement.

Wainwright, in turn, has pledged to give South Portland a strip of land for the express purpose of providing access from Highland Avenue to a planned connector road that will cross city land, behind the Wainwright Field Athletic Complex.

He has promised to give to the city an 80-foot-by-300-foot parcel, next to the Jessica Lane subdivision, “for the exclusive purpose” of someday being able to “construct a portion of a cross-town connector road,” which would be named Ted Wainwright Farm Drive.

Wainwright also will lift deed restrictions on a portion of Wainwright playing fields to allow for the road to be built.

Wainwright declined to discuss the settlement, other than to say he was pleased and about to leave for Florida.

Reached by phone, Vinny Maietta – an officer in the family-owned Maietta Construction – described the lawsuit against the city as “hogwash… I can promise you, none of it is true. There has never been any missing or stolen loam.”

Attorney Mary Kahl, who represented the city, said the settlement releases all the parties from any claims or liabilities.

“I give the attorneys credit for being creative,” said Thomas McKeon, attorney for Maietta Construction. “The city gets the right to build the cross-town highway and Mr. Wainwright gets somehow to say he won the lawsuit.”

Maietta Construction was not a defendant in the lawsuit, although the company’s actions were at the center of the dispute. The lawsuit and settlement do not prove that Maietta Construction did anything wrong, McKeon said.

There is “nothing suggesting that loam was ever stolen…,” McKeon said. “I knew this was a very carefully negotiated agreement designed to make Wainwright feel good.”

Councilor Linda Boudreau said Monday night she was both pleased and relieved the lawsuit was settled. “You never know where solutions and opportunities will come from,” she said. “We’ve been trying to resolve this lawsuit for five years, and we’ve been talking about a cross-town connector for 20 years.”

Most all the city councilors and City Manager Jim Gailey expressed thanks to Wainwright, who did not attend the meeting.

Gailey said the city has no immediate plans to build a road, adding “we have greater needs in this community.”

“The land gift and the lifting of deed restrictions will provide an opportunity down the road, if the city wants to head in that direction. At this current time, I don’t see any movement toward a cross-town road,” Gailey said.

City leaders, at the same time, say the eventual construction of an east-west road is important for several reasons that include giving emergency vehicles quicker access to outer Highland Avenue.

“The emergency response times are pushing the national averages,” Gailey said. “Having a cross-town road would allow the rescue out of Cash Corner to get to the Highland Avenue district faster.”

A new road also would ease congestion on Broadway. City leaders point out the bottleneck at Broadway and Evans. An oil rig that overturned and a fire at A-Best Windows both brought traffic to a standstill on Broadway.

No estimates have been done on costs. The city would explore state and federal assistance as a plan was developed.

Gailey described the settlement as allowing the city to gain control of a “strategic parcel on the cheap.”

Although Boudreau is excited about the city gaining access to critical parcels, she added this is not the economy to build a new road.

“It probably will not happen in the next year or two.”