Town voters overwhelmingly approve discontinuing public easement of Old Rte. 202

by Mary Grow

Ninety voters filled the town office meeting room for China’s Aug. 25 special town meeting to talk about discontinuing a public easement and giving to The Landing, LLC, the town’s interest, if it has any interest, in the land over which the easement runs.

By the end of the hour-and-a-quarter meeting, they had approved both articles. The easement was discontinued on a vote of 76 in favor to 12 opposed; whatever interest the town had in the underlying property was given to The Landing on a vote of 72 to 13.

Town officials hope the action put an end to a dispute that has bubbled up repeatedly since 1972, costing taxpayers uncounted legal fees.

The meeting warrant was accompanied by a street-level photograph of the area in question at the head of China Lake’s east basin, a short distance east China Village; an aerial photograph; two diagrams; and a copy of Town Attorney Amanda Meader’s Aug. 23 comments on resident Carrol White’s opinion piece in the Aug. 21 issue of The Town Line (see p. 3, and also p. 1).

The meeting began with the election of Bob Kurek, from Palermo, as moderator. His explanation of usual meeting rules was followed by three decisions by show of hands:

— To allow non-resident town attorney Amanda Meader to speak;
— To limit speakers to three minutes for a first comment and two minutes thereafter; and
— To vote on the two articles by written ballot.

The most common question from voters was “Who owns the property?” Meader explained her opinion, based on extensive review of decades of files, that the land belongs to The Landing and its owners, Kimberly and Tory Stark.

The Town of China has only an easement, that is, a right for the public to drive or walk through the property on the former roadway.

The Starks have been paying taxes on the land. Kimberly Stark explained they did so because they believed they owned it, and therefore thought it only fair to pay the taxes, despite the uncertainty.

Meader, select board chairman Wayne Chadwick and board member Thomas Rumpf said they thought approving the articles would be good for the town.

Meader said she could see no reason to keep the easement, since two paved roads have replaced it. Without resolution, the issue keeps coming up, creating “legal fees you don’t need to pay again,” she said.

Chadwick agreed the easement has little if any value to the town. Rumpf said if the Starks have clear title, the questions that have impeded them financially and in terms of lot size will go away; they will be able to proceed with expansion plans; and the taxes they pay the town will go up.

Approving the discontinuance, including counting the paper ballots, took almost an hour.

After moderator Bob Kurek read the final question, whether to give away any interest the town might have in the land, people again began asking “Who owns it?”

Others shouted, “The Landing.” The question was repeated so often that one voter urged Kurek to refuse to recognize anyone who wanted to ask it.

Several people asked whether China was giving away a piece of shoreland that might become a public beach by giving away any interest in the land. Meader thought not, saying again the town had never owned the land, only an easement.

When there was briefly a public beach in the mid-1970s, Meader said, the town leased the land from the people who then owned the restaurant.