Purchase option OK’d for Brewer Land Trust

BANGOR – City officials have authorized a purchase option with the Brewer Land Trust, which is seeking to buy property owned by Bangor but located in Brewer.

The parcel is located on the Brewer side of the Bangor Dam, located off North Main Street. Felts Brook runs through a portion of the parcel, according to a Brewer city tax map.

Bangor’s asking price for the parcel is $65,000, or the assessed value of the land.

The Brewer Land Trust wants to acquire the land, which runs along the Penobscot River, for use for trails, conservation, recreation and educational purposes, according to city documents related to the deal.

Besides the land, which is undeveloped, the purchase option includes the city of Bangor’s interests to the dam structure, which no longer is used for hydroelectric power generation, as well as the fishway, spillway and related structures from the riverbank to the midpoint of the river.

If Brewer’s land trust exercises the purchase option and a deed is issued, it will prohibit the land’s rezoning for industrial, commercial and residential development.

Bangor councilors approved the option 7-1 during a meeting last week.

Councilor Gerry Palmer, who cast the sole vote opposing the sale, said he thought it was shortsighted to sell a property with rights to a former hydroelectric power dam, given the current energy crisis.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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