SCARBOROUGH – This week, the Scarborough Town Council was expected to approve the transfer of a 6.4-acre parcel on Bradford Lane to the Scarborough Land Trust for conservation and public access purposes.

The property, which abuts the Scarborough Marsh, is now owned by the town, which acquired the parcel due to non-payment of property taxes by the now-deceased former property owner.

The land trust and the Friends of Scarborough Marsh are offering to pay the town a total of $38,846 for the property, which would cover the amount owed in back taxes, as well as the $544 the town spent in cleaning up the property after the property owner died.

The property owner always meant for the land to be preserved, according to a memorandum provided to the Town Council by the land trust and the friends group prior to the council’s meeting on Wednesday, which was held after the Current’s deadline.

In 2004, the land trust, with the help of the friends and the town’s land bond fund, purchased the property, giving a lifetime tenancy to the owner with the understanding that the home on the parcel would be demolished after his death.

According to the memo to the council, the original goal was to deed the parcel over to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to add to the marsh’s wildlife management area.

However, now the land trust believes it would be best if it held the property in order to maintain and manage it locally and to open the land to the public, “providing an exceptional recreation and marsh viewing site and providing valuable shrub habitat for wildlife.”

In the memo to the council, the property on Bradford Lane is described as, “a key upland parcel that provides views of and access to the marsh, (which is) adjacent to other parcels that might be available for preservation.”

– Kate Irish Collins