By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    The City of South Portland has received the much anticipated response to the council’s decision to discontinue the final 25 feet of  Edgewood Road from the Cape Elizabeth residents living at 59 and 60 Edgewood. On March 21, Bruce McGlauflin, attorney for Debra Sampson of 59 Edgewood and Chris and Jayne Boulos of 60 Edgewood, sent a letter to city attorney Mary Kahl stating his clients would not be appealing the city’s decision despite their opposition to it.
    According to McGlauflin’s letter, “there is no reason to appeal the order because it does not alter the private easement rights of the owners of 59 and 60 Edgewood Road.” He continued, “A discontinuance order terminates public easement rights only and has no effect whatsoever on private easement rights.” McGlauflin said the city has always referred to the easements as private and the only way to terminate the rights is to seize them through eminent domain.  
    “I don’t agree with that obviously or I would not have recommended to the council that this can be done,” Kahl said last Friday. “I am not aware of any reason why the city cannot amend a discontinuance order.”
    McGlauflin also said the easement deeds that granted the rights to the Cape Elizabeth residents in December 2000, are missing from the public record. That order called for councilors to accept quitclaim deeds for the discontinued sections of both Charlotte Street and Edgewood Road, grant access easements to the two Cape Elizabeth residents, and allow for mediation between neighbors.
    “I am sure that you would agree that had Order No. 89-00/01 been faithfully followed, the recent order amending the 2000 discontinuance would not authorize the city to block access to Mr. & Mrs. Boulos and Ms. Sampson,” McGlauflin stated in the letter.
    McGlauflin submitted a Maine Freedom of Access Act Request to Kahl, asking for all correspondence regarding the 2000 order and the easement deeds.  
    Last Friday, Kahl said the city does have on file deeds for the South Portland abutters on both Charlotte Street and Edgewood Road, but “it appear(ed) that the (Cape Elizabeth) deeds may not have been drafted or issued through administrative oversight.” Kahl said if it was an administrative oversight, the blame rests on the city and the property owners. If the deeds were never drafted, she said the responsibility lies with “some combination of me and the property owners themselves for not requesting them.” McGlauflin said although he wasn’t involved with the case in 2000, he believes his clients were not aware of the process. The second part of the 2000 order asked the council to “authorize the City Manager (Jeff Jordan) to execute and deliver easements  granting vehicular and pedestrian access and utility access to the owners of the two developed lots on Edgewood in Cape Elizabeth.” Furthermore the order stated, “A reservation of access rights was also a part of the discontinuance order.”
    Kahl said she did “remember discussion about also writing easements for them in addition to the reservation in the discontinuance, but (she) did not find anything further on this in (her) files.” In a letter to Cape Elizabeth Planning Board members, dated May 28, 2002; however, Kahl metions such easements as existing, stating “If Red Oak Drive is built as shown on the plan, thus providing vehicular access to the two house lots already developed through the Town of Cape Elizabeth, the City is prepared to legally extinguish the easements, making Edgewood a dead end street 25 feet short of the municipal boundary.” 
    “If the city promised and made representations about private easements and the owners of 59 and 60 relied on the promises, the city can not now claim that the easements don’t exist, “ said McGlauflin.
    On March 27, Chris and Jayne Boulos and Debra Sampson submitted a memo to South Portland city councilors while also sending copies to City Manager Ted Jankowski, Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern, and the Cape Elizabeth Town Council. In the memo, the Cape Elizabeth residents stated they had uncovered “numerous old emails and communication within the City relative to this matter...(and) we believe there have been years of poor legal advice from your Corporate Counsel, as well as participating in inappropriate and unprofessional ‘backroom’ strategies to do anything possible to work around our private rights with the ultimate goal of closing Edgewood Road.”
    The residents asked South Portland officials to keep the road open as the most recent discontinuance order had no effect on their legal rights.
    Jankowski said the city would move forward with plans to block the road as soon as the construction season begins.
    He said Public Works would design a barrier, taking into account the recommendations of people in the neighborhood and public safety officials.
    “We don’t have definite plans for what we’re going to do, but we’re going to do something,” he said.
    McGlauflin concluded his letter to Kahl by stating although his clients have no current plans to appeal the city’s decision, if the road is closed, their position may change.
    “That is not to say that they will not take legal action if and when the City physically blocks their access to Edgewood Road in South Portland,” he stated. “The City can avoid that confrontation by properly recognizing the private easement rights and by issuing the easement deeds that were ordered and promised in 2000. It would then be appropriate for the City to consider the legal option it may have for terminating those private rights.”