After more than three years of wrangling over alleged land-use violations, town officials in Gray are near an agreement with Twin Brooks Camping Area that will close the popular Little Sebago Lake spot at least for the coming season.

An attorney for Andrea Maloney, the campground’s owner, said his client cannot afford to fight the allegations anymore, and wants to settle the matter now. But abutting landowners who have fought to have the town intervene due to the violations said the agreement does not go far enough in repairing the damage done.

The Town Council will hold a public hearing Feb. 17 at Stimson Hall on a proposed consent judgment agreement with Twin Brooks. After taking comments from residents, the council will decide whether to forward the agreement to the Cumberland County District Court for approval. Twin Brooks has agreed to the proposal on principle and awaits the final document, town attorney Paul Driscoll said Tuesday.

Under the terms of the agreement, Twin Brooks is ordered to pay a $20,000 fine to the town, and to remove or cap off all utility hookups for the campsites and remove the wires. The agreement also eliminates any suggestion that campsites are grandfathered, and states that Twin Brooks cannot be operated as a campground until it complies with all land-use rules. Further fines can be imposed if the actions are not taken by Oct. 1.

“We are anxious to get this behind everybody, because it’s been dragging out for three years,” said Town Council Chairman Peter Gellerson.

Town officials and abutting landowners, in citations reaching back to at least 2006, contend Twin Brooks has committed numerous land-use violations, including the illegal expansion of campsites and shoreland zoning violations. Twin Brooks also unlawfully cut trees and filled in wetlands, they contend.

Twin Brooks has claimed in the past that the campsites were “grandfathered” because they were constructed before the town enacted its land-use codes. Maloney’s attorney, David Lourie of South Portland, said his client was working to get the campground up to code, but was thwarted in her attempt by neighbors whose loud opposition led the town to stop processing permit applications for the corrective work.

“They got everybody stirred up, and there is no likelihood that she is going to get anything through,” said Lourie.

Started in the 1960s with 25 campsites, Twin Brooks eventually grew, illegally, some say, to 45 sites. The violations were found when the campground applied for an expansion that would have meant over 100 campsites.

Lourie said the campground was operating in 1965, before the town established its code, at 45 lots. Maloney was addressing the code violations that occurred before she inherited Twin Brooks from her uncle, he argued, and allegations of violations since then were unfounded.

If the case went forward, however, she was open to fines of around $100 per day. Lourie said the settlement comes with no admission of guilt.

“She can’t afford to fight this indefinitely,” Lourie said, adding that she cannot afford either to operate the camp with just the 25 original sites.

“She tried to do it last summer, and she didn’t make any money then,” he said.

Marissa Libby, whose back yard shares a property line with the campground, said the town should have stepped in a long time ago.

“I think it’s ridiculous. This has been going on for three years. There have been so many ordinance violations, if this was any other town they would have shut her down a long time ago,” said Libby, whose family has owned the property for around a century.

In expanding their campsites, Twin Brooks cut down trees both on their property and Libby’s, removing a buffer between Libby’s property and the campground, she said. Since then, Libby said, her privacy has been ruined, and she has been subjected to jeers from campers.

“I can see (Maloney’s) office. I can see every camper out there. She completely ruined our visual barrier. I think they should hold them to fixing every violation, including the vegetation,” said Libby, adding that she has little confidence Twin Brooks will follow the stipulations outlined in the judgment.

Because the debate over the alleged violations at Twin Brooks has gone on for so long, and the players are so passionate, it is unlikely any agreement would satisfy everybody, Gellerson said.

The fine imposed by the judgment is hefty enough to punish Twin Brooks for the violations, Gellerson said, and the council feels it has gotten from the owner the best deal possible. If they had sought more sanctions, Twin Brooks may not have agreed, setting up a trial, he said. The judgment also leaves open the possibility the current or future owners of the site, which is up for sale, may reopen it as a campground, Gellerson said.

But he sympathized with the abutters, and with the problems they have faced in the long disagreement over the violation allegations.

“I don’t think when something like this happens to land that you are going to get it back 100 percent,” he said.

One can only hope, landowner Libby said, that someone takes the Twin Brooks land now and makes the most of it.

“This could be the jewel of Little Sebago had she treated the lake like she cared about it,” Libby said.