Opponents of the stalled-out project to build a land-based fish farm in Belfast are welcoming the preliminary findings of a surveyor whom the city recently hired to identify the boundaries between it and the neighboring town of Northport.
The location of the line has been controversial, after Belfast used eminent domain in 2021 to secure access to intertidal land at the mouth of the Little River where Nordic Aquafarms aimed to install pipes for its project. But courts ultimately ruled that the eminent domain taking had relied on a defunct survey that confused a section of Northport for Belfast.
In the wake of those court rulings, Belfast councilors agreed to vacate the eminent domain action last spring, and they also commissioned the new survey of the Belfast-Northport border.
During a work session of the Belfast City Council on Tuesday, surveyor Robert Yarumian II said that his preliminary findings were that, beyond the upper mouth of the Little River, the city’s boundary extends in a straight eastward line. In that intertidal area, he also found that there is an area between the boundaries of Belfast and Northport that neither community has jurisdiction over.
Officials from both communities are now waiting on Yarumian’s final report. They could ultimately decide to propose new legislation that would put his findings into state law.
But opponents of the Nordic Aquafarms were quick to celebrate the preliminary findings. While they initially opposed the city conducting the survey last spring — arguing that it was a waste of money — they now say it affirms other surveys that have also placed Belfast’s boundary in a similar place.
“We’ve resolved the issue of where the Belfast boundary is, and it is in the same location we have been saying for many years,” said Kim Ervin Tucker, an attorney representing property owners whose intertidal land the city took through eminent domain. “I appreciate the work session. It confirms what we’ve been saying, and I’m very grateful to all of you.”
Jill Howell, executive director of the group Upstream Watch, also celebrated the preliminary findings.
“After years of questions being raised regarding the boundary, we’re hopeful this survey will finally settle it — Belfast took land by eminent domain that was outside of their jurisdictional boundaries and granted an easement to Nordic,” Howell said.
Nordic Aquafarms has also closely watched the city’s decision to survey its border. Last spring, it sued the city over the reversal of its eminent domain taking, arguing that officials should have worked to confirm the municipal boundary first.
The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some Belfast and Northport officials who attended Tuesday’s meeting also commented on the preliminary findings or asked questions about them.
Belfast Mayor Eric Sanders expressed some surprise about Yarumian’s preliminary finding that the boundaries of the two communities stop running alongside each other once they reach the intertidal zone beyond the upper mouth of the Little River.
“I had always thought, or presumed, that it had been together, but the reality is that there’s a lot of mud between the town lines after the mouth of the river. That’s what I’m seeing,” Sanders said. “The city of Belfast line is pretty straight, and has been sounded out, and if they are separated after the mouth of the river, that would make a lot of sense.”
Sanders said the two communities would likely meet again after the final report is ready.
