The Maine Department of Environmental Protection recently issued a letter of warning designed to recoup wetlands protections lost in a regulatory oversight more than 20 years ago.
The lapse by state and federal regulators allowed a wetlands mitigation site in Belfast to be marketed for commercial development earlier this year.
The mitigation deal emerged from the development of credit card giant MBNA’s sprawling campus in Belfast. In exchange for impacts to about seven acres of wetlands, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to let MBNA restore wetlands on a nearby 24-acre site, just west of the Renys Plaza, and protect it in perpetuity for conservation and public access.
Bank of America acquired the wetlands parcel when it bought MBNA in 2006. It sold the 24 acres at auction this January, but the deed was unencumbered by a conservation easement, because it had never been filed. The new owner is now offering it for sale for commercial development. (Listing agent Charlie Hippler did not reply to requests for comment.)
The warning letter issued by the DEP last month was addressed to the nonprofit Penobscot Community Health Care, which now owns the property where regulators allowed MBNA to alter wetlands in exchange for setting aside the 24-acre parcel.
“It has come to the Department’s attention that the deed restriction was never placed on the mitigation parcel as intended and required by both the Department order and Corps permit,” DEP’s Robert Wood wrote in the November 10 letter. “The Department is also aware that the current owner of the mitigation parcel, which is not PCHC, recently listed the property for sale for commercial development.”
The warning letter continues, “The license requires PCHC to preserve wetland functions and values on the mitigation parcel. Because the parcel has not been protected in perpetuity by deed restriction and is now at risk of being developed for commercial purposes, PCHC has not preserved the wetland functions and values on the mitigation parcel.”
Wood said if PCHC does not comply with the terms of the license, DEP might take enforcement action.
But the health care agency says it does not feel obligated to fix the mitigation snafu. The nonprofit bought the land for its Seaport Community Health Center from Bank of America in 2021, before the missing conservation easement came to light.
“Penobscot Community Health Care is not and has never been the owner of the land which contains the wetlands in question and does not have any responsibility regarding the property,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “PCHC is investigating why the Maine Department of Environmental Protection believes PCHC has any responsibility regarding the matter.”
As the parties parry over if and how the wetlands should be conserved, as required by the 1997 permit issued to MBNA, it remains unclear who dropped the ball on the easement.
Pierce Atwood attorney Philip “Chip” Ahrens drafted the easement, and sent it to MBNA’s Blaine Buck in April 1997 for the signature of MBNA Regional Vice President Shane Flynn.
But several years later, Michael Hartman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers noticed that the easement had not been filed. He wrote to Ahrens in December 2001, asking him to provide copies if the document had been filed. But there is no record of the easement ever having been filed.
Bub Fournier, director of planning for the City of Belfast, says the parcel is not ideal for commercial development due to the extensive wetlands. Still, the property appears to be ever more valuable.
In January 2025, Bank of America sold the lot at auction to We Buy and Resell Homes LLC, a Georgia company, for $15,750. CORE real estate listed it over the summer for $295,000. Now it is asking $500,000.