Bill seeks to ease land lessees’ fears Amendment failed to include key provisions sought by leaseholders

AUGUSTA – After much concern was raised last fall that the tradition of timber companies leasing camp lots on their land was coming to an end, a legislative committee this week endorsed modest measures to help ease leaseholders’ fears.

By a vote of 9-4, the Judiciary Committee supported an amended version of LD 2100, a bill that included the recommendations of a majority of the members of the Committee to Study Issues Concerning Changes to the Traditional Uses of Maine Forests and Lands.

Although some leaseholders told the committee that leases should run for 10 years and that lessees should be given the first opportunity to buy the land their camps sit on if the company decides to sell it, none of these things made it into the bill voted out by the Judiciary Committee.

The amended bill would require that landowners give lessees one year’s notice that a lease will be terminated. This is meant to give the leaseholder time to move buildings off the leased land.

Lessees would also be given 30 days’ notice that the terms of their lease are going to be changed. There is no right of first refusal provision in the amended bill.

The provisions apply to people who lease land that is under the jurisdiction of the Land Use Regulation Commission, which includes most of the land in the state’s 10 million acres of Unorganized Territories.

The bill is now headed for the full Legislature.

A key provision that leaseholders had sought is missing from the bill, said Stu Kallgren, president of the Maine Leaseholders Association.

That provision would be to ensure that leaseholders receive fair market value compensation for their property if their lease is terminated. Some leaseholders have built expensive year-round homes on leased land. Since it would be virtually impossible to move such a structure, these people should be compensated for the loss of their home.

Although such a provision is not in the bill, Kallgren said his group is working to get it amended before a final vote in the Legislature.

Although the bill does not include many provisions that leaseholders originally sought, Kallgren said it will be helpful to his members. He estimates that there are 6,000 to 7,000 recreational camp lot leases in the state.

The concerns of leaseholders came to light last summer when a Connecticut couple complained publicly that their lease on Moosehead Lake had been canceled by a wealthy Texas businessman who bought 20,000 acres on the eastern side of the lake.

Leases were also canceled by a Colorado cable television executive who bought all the land around Spencer Lake, near Jackman. The same happened on Chesuncook Lake when a Massachusetts developer bought the land.