Options Eyed for Land at Air Base ; A Redevelopment Authority is Told That Brunswick Has No Legal Right to Navy Land but Can Influence Its Use.

By DENNIS HOEY Staff Writer

Brunswick has no legal authority to force the U.S. Navy to return land that it seized 60 years ago to create an air base, a legal expert said Wednesday, but the town could rezone the land as open space to protect the original Town Commons. James T. Kilbreth, an attorney with Verrill and Dana in Portland, told the Local Redevelopment Authority that the eminent domain taking of more than 700 acres to create the Brunswick Naval Air Station did not include a reversionary clause. That means the federal government has no legal obligation to give the land back to the town.

Authority members, including Chairman Martin Wilk, said they would consider recommending that some of that land be rezoned once the air base closes.

“It’s clear we don’t have any legal right to require the government to give the land back to the town, but we do have other things we can do,” Wilk said.

The authority, which consists of 12 residents of Brunswick, Topsham, Bath and neighboring communities, was formed last year after the federal government approved closing the air station by 2011.

The authority’s primary mission is to create a redevelopment plan for the 3,200-acre facility.

The group is looking for a full-time director and reviewing proposals from parties who may have an interest in acquiring land at the base.

But one of the first issues that members wanted to address was whether Brunswick is entitled to receive some of the land the Navy took when the air base was created in the early 1940s.

Mat Eddy, the authority’s interim director, said the government took more than 700 acres of Town Commons land. The remaining 72 acres, off Harpswell Road, are used as a park.

The ownership of commons lands became an issue in 2005, when a base closure strategy report recommended that the town take steps to reunite the parcels if the base were to close.

The town’s 1993 Comprehensive Plan says, “The Town Commons should be carefully protected against private development and should be reused in a manner that benefits all inhabitants of the town of Brunswick.”

Wilk said Kilbreth testified Wednesday because he had worked on the Town Commons issue with RKG Associates, the New Hampshire consultant that developed the base closure report.

While Kilbreth offered no legal basis for pursuing the land, state Rep. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, said he will seek support for a legislative resolve that brings pressure on the Navy to turn the land over to Brunswick “free of charge.”

Gerzofsky is a member of the authority.

In other matters, the authority:

n Said it is seeking proposals for a study to determine the feasibility of reusing the Brunswick Naval Air Station for general aviation, air cargo flights, military aviation or passenger service. The proposals are due Feb. 21. The study will take about a year.

n Authorized Wilk to encourage the Federal Aviation Administration to seek ownership of a $9 million air traffic control tower that was built recently on the air base. Wilk said the tower could be used as regional facility for directing air traffic between Boston and Canada.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 725-8795 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com