An Act To Modify the City of Portland's Leasing Authority for the Maine State Pier
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 2256
Committee: Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Sponsors: CUMMINGS, BRANNIGAN, BRAUTIGAM, CLEARY, HARLOW, HASKELL, MARLEY, MAZUREK, RECTOR, DAMON

Legislative Document 
No. 2256 
H.P.1618 
House of Representatives, March 12,2008 
An Act To Modify the City of Portland's Leasing Authority for the 
Maine State Pier 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203. 
Reference to the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry suggested and 
ordered printed. 
Presented by Speaker CUMMINGS of Portland. 
Cosponsored by Senator BRANNIGAN of Cumberland and 
17/~ 
/J7.1J?~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Representatives: BRAUTIGAM of Falmouth, CLEARY of Houlton, HARLOW of Portland, 
HASKELL of Portland, MARLEY of Portland, MAZUREK of Rockland, RECTOR of 
Thomaston, Senator: DAMON of Hancock. 
Printed on rt:cyded paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 
Lease of submerged lands for period longer than 30 years. 
Notwithstanding the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 12, section 1862, subsection 2, the 
Director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands within the Department of Conservation shall 
lease submerged lands under and adjacent to the Maine State Pier and the Ocean Gateway 
Pier to the City of Portland, referred to in this Act as "the city," for a term of at least 75 
years but no more than 99 years, subject to the following conditions: 
1. The submerged lands under and adjacent to the Maine State Pier and the Ocean 
Gateway Pier, to which the city holds title by virtue of a deed from the State of Maine 
IOdated February 1, 1982, may not be sold by the city but may be subleased in accordance 
with the provisions of this Act; 
2. The city shall manage such lands in trust for the benefit, rights and use of the 
general pUblic. When conveying any interest in all or part of the submerged land, the city 
shall consider the effects of such conveyances on public trust rights; and 
3. The city must be authorized under the lease to use the leased submerged lands for 
the purpose of maintaining and developing a public port and marine transportation 
services facility. With regard to the Maine State Pier, the city must be authorized to 
allow upland uses to be located on the pier that the city determines are an essential 
subsidiary use necessary to support the primary marine and public uses of the facility for 
which no reasonable alternative site is available. The city may determine that there is no 
reasonable alternative site available when the primary marine and public uses would not 
be sufficiently supported if a certain use is not located on the pier, thus rendering an 
alternative site unreasonable. Such use may not diminish the primary purpose of the pier 
as a marine port and public use facility. 
Sec. 2. 
Reservation of rights. 
By entering into a long-term lease for the 
submerged lands under and adjacent to the Maine State Pier and the Ocean Gateway Pier, 
the city does not waive any claims to ownership it may have to those submerged lands by 
virtue of a deed from the State of Maine dated February 1, 1982 and recorded in the 
Cumberland County Registry of Deeds in Book 4916, Page 26. 
SUMMARY 
In 1982, as part of the pUblic-private partnership among the State, Bath Iron Works 
and the City of Portland, the city purchased the port facilities that were used for an 
economic development project. That property is now in need of extensive and costly 
repairs, which will be difficult to fund with a short-term lease given the amount of money 
that will have to be invested in the project. 
This bill requires the Director of the Bureau of Public Lands within the Department 
of Conservation to lease submerged lands under and adjacent to the port facilities to the 
City of Portland for not less than 75 years nor more than 99 years. It also makes it clear 
that the submerged lands may not be sold by the city but may be leased and that the use 
of the property is subject to the public trust doctrine. The bill also imposes conditions on 
Page I - 123LR3332(OI)-1 
the use of the property that must be included in the lease and preserves the right of the 
city to pursue its claim of ownership to the submerged lands.