Owner Agrees to Right Blighted Property, Town Manager Says

The owner of the blighted property at the corner of Waterville Road and Farmington Avenue has agreed to clean it up, Town Manager Kathy Eagen told the Town Council Tuesday evening.

The council added the property to the blight list July 19, when the owner had placed a blue tarp over the roof, left a dumpster in the yard and allowed the lawn to grow several feet high.

The property owner, 1 Waterville Road LLC, stopped maintaining the lot after the Town Plan and Zoning Commission rejected its proposal for a development project there. The company brought a lawsuit against the commission about a year ago to overturn the denial. The suit is still pending.

“I won’t go through the ugly details but we have come to a meeting of the minds,” Eagen said Tuesday. “We were fining them close to $300 a day for the last three months.”

Eagen said the Town would not put a lien on the property or issue a ticket if the owner cleaned it up and kept it off the blighted building list.

“I think we have a good faith agreement with them, a written agreement with the attorneys.”