BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2021
A long-running property rights lawsuit and debate over public access to the shore on the east side of Belfast is close to being settled, giving the city shorefront land and the right to construct a path to the ocean across it, according to city officials. According to the terms of an agreement recently hammered out between municipal officials and several local landowners, the city now owns an unbuildable waterfront lot with 400 or so feet of shore frontage off Highview Terrace not far from the Searsport town line. In exchange, the city will release its rights to a historic 32-foot-wide rangeway that runs from U.S. Route 1 to the shore but crosses land that several neighbors believe belongs to them. The city has several rangeways, which are holdovers from Belfast’s colonial days.