KENNEBUNKPORT — Voters will decide the fate of Goose Rocks Beach during a Special Town Meeting on Monday, and some seasonal residents are expressing frustration at their inability to vote.

Registered voters will convene at Kennebunkport Consolidated School to determine whether the town enters into an agreement with property owners along the beach, which would establish guidelines for appropriate beach use by nonresidents as well as privacy rights for abutters.

The proposed ordinance is a compromise between the town, which wants to keep the beach public, and beachfront homeowners, who claim that their property rights extend to the beach itself. In an attempt to compromise between public use and privacy, the ordinance establishes a 25-foot swath of beach in front of each property that is essentially under the homeowners’ control; regular beach use by the public is allowed outside of these zones, and a beach advisory committee would be created in order to mediate disputes that may arise.

The ordinance would also establish a beach maintenance fund for general upkeep of the beach ”“ and that’s where seasonal resident Scott Hodgkins takes issue.

“It basically amounts to a beach tax,” said Hodgkins, who spends summers in Goose Rocks Beach area, where his family has long had property. “It’s very one-sided. It’s basically saying, ”˜Hooray for beach people.’”

The ordinance requires the town to pay $2,000 for every Goose Rocks resident who has signed onto the beach use agreement into a beach maintenance fund; there are currently 61 total, said Town Manager Larry Mead, which means the town would have to contribute $122,000 to the fund.

The beach maintenance fund would be presented to voters as a budget item at the annual Town Meeting, according to Mead, and would be replenished each year, although the amount of money replenished would be contingent upon how much the town had drawn from the account the year previous; if only $5,000 had been drawn from the account, then $5,000 would be requested at Town Meeting.

Still, Hodgkins is concerned that the fund, and especially the initial $122,000 investment to establish it, will have a negative impact on residents’ taxes.

Mead acknowledged that public tax money would be used for the fund, and would result in about a 7- to 8-cent increase on the residential tax rate. But, he said, the amount of taxes needed for the fund would be a pittance compared to what the town has already had to spend on legal fees. More than 30 Goose Rocks residents filed a lawsuit against the town in October 2009 in hopes of privatizing the longtime public beach, resulting in a compromise mediated by lawyers on both sides, as well as “the working group,” an association consisting of 13 town officials, Goose Rocks Beach homeowners and nearby residents.

The compromise has received a vocal endorsement by the board of selectmen.

“What the selectmen are doing is putting this in perspective,” said Mead. “We view that (fund) as a good investment.”

Despite efforts to appeal to both sides of the issue, Hodgkins feels the upcoming vote is unfair to seasonal residents, who may not be registered to vote in the town.

“There’s no equity here,” he said. “And I don’t think they can enforce the ordinance.”

Mead disagrees, citing the authority of the beach advisory committee to handle disputes. He also pointed out that registered voters will have the ability to decide, at Monday’s Special Town Meeting, whether seasonal residents may have a say in the vote.

One possible situation arising from Monday’s meeting is that, if the ordinance is approved, voters may still reject funding for the beach maintenance fund, which would put the town in the awkward position of violating the terms of the agreement.

Mead feels that won’t happen.

“Townspeople are smart,” he said. “They’ll weigh what the consequences would be.”

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 319 or jlagasse@journaltribune.com.