Green area is Town owned open space near Leighton Farms/Cross Hill, purple is access easement.

12/24/09

Leighton Farms/Cross Hill residents invited to meeting on neighborhood open space

A neighborhood meeting for residents in the Leighton Farms/Cross Hill greenbelt area will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010, in the Town Hall, 320 Ocean House Road.

The meeting has been called by town staff to discuss access to town-owned open space in the area.

Members of the Town Council have been also invited and may be attending the meeting.

At the Nov. 9, 2009 council meeting, the council upheld a ruling from Town Manager Michael McGovern ordering removal of part of a stone wall that had been built by abutters to town-owned open space near 8 Leighton Farms Road. The order also called for the property to be returned to its natural condition.

Some councilors who had visited the site said the trail head had the appearance of a lawn, and was not an obvious entrance to public open space. Several neighbors, however, said they appreciated the way the trail head had been maintained, and asked for the town to work with the neighborhood to make the open space both natural and usable.

An invitation to the meeting, which will be mailed to neighbors on Dec. 27, 2009, says that the issue considered by the council in November "brought forward a larger issue of how access to this land may be preserved for the benefit of area residents and for the larger community."

The Town of Cape Elizabeth own 773 acres of open space, with easements over another 85 acres, the letter says. Open space abutting Cross Hill and Leighton Farms, continuing to near Fickett Street, constitutes 157 acres of the Town owned open space, or about 20 percent of the town total, the letter says. The portion between Steeplebush Road and Leighton Farms also links to open space across Wells Road.

"The Town wishes to have a dialogue with you as immediate abutters to the Town owned land on how we can best preserve access to this property and ensure that the land is not an undue burden on your private property," the invitation says.