Website with information related to Peaks can http://pi-paper-roads.deciph.com/wp- at website the on found be slides Island paper roads These April 24, 2016 Timothy Wyant google “Peaks Island Paper Roads” or http://pi-paper-roads.deciph.com/, URL: Website content/uploads/2016/04/meeting-slides.pdf
Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. Some history 3. The 1997 review process 4. The 2017 review process 5. The paper roads website 1
Introduction
The website • This paper roads website is my personal project. • It is not an official project of the City of Portland or of the Peaks Island Council • Information, documents, and maps related to paper roads are scattered in many places, and often hard to find • Many of these items are useful, but tend to be: • Narrow or incomplete • Obsolete • Inconsistent • Of unclear origin • So I began assembling relevant items on this website 2
Some history
Subdivisions – mostly circa 1900 – two examples 3 Welch Hilborne and Charlotte Shaw subdivisions
Welch Hilborne plat (1921) 4
Welch Hilborne plat (1921) – zoomed to title 5
Welch Hilborne plat (1921) – zoomed to GEM theatre and ferry landing 6
Welch Hilborne plat (1921) – rotated so North is up (more or less) 7
Welch Hilborne paper streets 8 Paper Streets Streets to be Vacated Unaccepted Streets with Houses to be Continued Unaccepted Streets without Houses to be Continued Undesignated Road with Houses Undesignated Road without Houses
Welch-Hil. east – aerial photo with today’s parcel boundaries 9
Paper Streets – Charlotte Shaw 10 Paper Streets Streets to be Vacated Unaccepted Streets with Houses to be Continued Unaccepted Streets without Houses to be Continued Undesignated Road with Houses Undesignated Road without Houses
Paper Streets – Charlotte R. Shaw plat 11
Subdivision plats and aerial photos on the website • Subdivision plats are available from Cumberland County, and can be accessed online • However, the process is not always as straightforward as one might wish • I have many of the plats, and plan to post them to the website in the near future • The aerial photo with address points and parcel boundaries I obtained from the City • It is already posted to the website for viewing or downloading 12
The 1997 review process
Maine statewide review of Paper Streets – 1997 13
What paper streets look like 14
Retention of public rights 15
Result of the 1997 review in Portland and Peaks • The City filed the required list with the Registry of Deeds • This list identified 435 paper streets in 142 subdivisions • Of these, 41 were vacated, and 29 partially vacated • For Peaks, the list named 102 paper streets in 29 subdivisions • Of these, 5 were vacated, and 3 partially vacated • In at least one or two instances, the City neglected to include a paper street on the list. The omitted streets were “deemed vacated” – that is, the City surrendered any public rights by default. 16
The 1997 paper streets process 17 Walked every PI Larry Mead paper street City sta ff er for Recommendations Peaks Legalities re paper streets PINA PI neighborhood Natalie Burns association City attorney City of Portland Art Astarita Peaks volunteer Digitized paper streets - Drew map of PI allowing computer maps paper roads? Paper streets list filed with Registry of Deeds Peaks Island paper streets after 1997 review −− South − West Copies being placed on the PI paper roads website
The post-1997 map of Peaks Island paper streets 18
The post-1997 map of Peaks Island paper streets – zoomed north 19
The 2017 review process
Status of the 2017 review process • In September 2017, the City must decide what to do with each paper street • Retain all public rights – accept as a street • Retain some rights – easements for some combination of pedestrian access, utilities, or recreational use • Give up all public rights • The City has a working group on paper streets • The group does not yet have anything to release to the public • The Peaks Island Council zoning committee has contacted the working group with initial questions and concerns • This PIC committee has been meeting to review paper streets issues, and will be holding public informational meetings this spring and summer 20
Some Maine towns are further along It may be helpful to look at what other towns are doing. • Cape Elizabeth has published summaries of its review process and proposed treatments of each paper street • http://www.capeelizabeth.com/home/topics/ paper_streets/home.html • Freeport has a downloadable Word file with a grid of proposed treatment of each paper street • http://www.freeportmaine.com/page.php?page_id=101 21
Example actions recommended by Freeport See the “Paper Streets / Discontinuance” webpage at www.freeport.maine.com. • To give up all rights to the roads ... • Retain all rights ... • Retain pedestrian travel and utility right of way ... • To retain a pedestrian and non-motorized vehicle right of way ... • To take no action ... private road 22
“Take no action ... private road” • The last item on the Freeport list is “Take no action ... private road” • A town’s public rights in a paper road are presumptive – based only on appearance of the road on a subdivision plat • In some instances, further review of deeds can show a “paper road” is private, with no or limited City access rights • On Peaks Island, this seems to be the case for some “paper roads” that are in the Evergreen Landing and Quincy M Sterling subdivisions • These will likely be designated as either ”vacate” or something like ”retain existing utility rights of way” at the end of the 2017 review 23
Possible “no action” roads on Peaks Island 24 The City may have limited or non-existent access rights in most — or perhaps all — of the “paper roads” in the Evergreen Landing area, based on deed research (colored brown in this excerpt from a map on the website) North tip of Peaks Island, with paper roads from the 1997 list Brown = with houses Blue = without houses
The paper roads website
The website needs help • The website is a work in progress • For what is currently on it, I owe thanks to numerous people. In particular: • Tim Murphy • Mike Murray • Art Astarita (who, in addition to digitizing the paper roads maps, preserved many documents from the 1997 review) • The Islander who emailed me about Evergreen Landing streets, but gave no name • I’m sure some of the things I’ve said on the site are wrong! • Please help! 25
Send contributions, questions, complaints ... 26
Post a comment ... 27
Post a comment ... 28
Appendix 28
Road and street categories
Undesignated roads The maps of paper streets on Peaks Island show some roads as “undesignated” • The City may have its own definition of “undesignated”, but I have not yet been able to unearth it • An undesignated road is not a paper road, but the City still lacks some specific rights of way, or does not need them • A ”road” on City land – such as near transfer station – is one example of the latter • If the City were doing some work, it could in theory move such a road 500 feet to the right, as long is it stays on City land • The City could not do this with a “normal” road
Undesignated roads – private roads • Some private roads are “undesignated roads” • One example is Woods Road • Such roads appear on maps, and have addresses on them • They are often used like normal roads – emergency services, package delivery, snow plowing • Nonetheless the City still lacks some specific rights of way • For example, the City is likely not able to just launch a road improvement project
Undesignated roads – other reasons • Other roads are “undesignated roads” for unknown reasons (at least to me) • One example is Tolman Road • Presumably, the City lacks some specific rights of way along this road, or the rights of way have yet to be fully researched • It is not a paper road, because it does not appear on a subdivision plat prior to 1987
Undesignated roads The maps of paper streets on Peaks Island show some roads as “undesignated” • The City may have its own definition of “undesignated”, but I have not yet been able to unearth it • An undesignated road is not a paper road, but the City still lacks some specific rights of way, or does not need them • A ”road” on City land – such as near transfer station – is one example of the latter • If the City were doing some work, it could in theory move such a road 500 feet to the right, as long is it stays on City land • The City could not do this with a “normal” road
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