Westbrook to stop public services on private roads
For decades, the city of Westbrook has snowplowed and collected trash for residents who live on a handful of private roads.
After a legal review, the city discovered it is — and has been — providing public services to seven of Westbrook’s 29 private roads. This longstanding practice puts the city at legal risk.
According to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, city funds can’t be used to maintain private roads. There must be a valid public purpose or benefit to justify the maintenance of private roads using taxpayer funds.
“We have an obligation to every taxpayer in Westbrook to make sure that public funds and city resources are being used lawfully and for a legitimate public purpose,” Mayor David Morse said during a facilities and streets committee meeting this month. “Continuing the status quo as it is right now, simply because it’s existed this way for many years, is not an acceptable solution.”
But for the residents on those seven streets, the change means losing services they’ve always known. Some weren’t even aware that the roads they lived on were private.
“As someone that bought my house two years ago, I wouldn’t even have considered this house if I had known or thought that it was on a private road,” Taylor Noonan, a resident living on one of the private roads, said at the second facilities and streets committee meeting Monday.
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For more than seven hours over the course of two meetings, the City Council, city staff and residents deliberated the best solutions for each individual road, whether it was the city obtaining a public easement to continue providing services or residents making private arrangements for those services themselves.
There were arguments over whether certain roads were private or public, debates over the size of snowplows, documents from council meetings in the 1970s and ’50s, and the history of a road built in 1824.
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The city reviewed and developed recommendations for each road, and after extensive public comment, the council voted to approve most of them. In most cases, the city will solicit a public easement so that it may continue to provide some services to the roads.
A public road is owned and maintained by the city. A public easement gives the public the right to travel over a private road, and the city would have a right — but not a duty — to maintain it.
To grant a public easement to the city, each property owner would have to sign off on it and offer it to the council for approval, giving the public right of access over the road.
When deciding whether to solicit a public easement, councilors considered two things: whether there was a greater public interest — beyond benefiting the residents living on the street — to provide services and whether the road can be maintained and have the right conditions to receive services.
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“The challenge here is we’ve got to reconcile our responsibility to the taxpayers with our responsibility to the residents,” Councilor Brian McCambridge said.
Some roads were deemed to have a public benefit because of the presence of public utilities or public properties on the road.
A few councilors expressed concern that soliciting an easement for some roads just because they had the right conditions, but didn’t necessarily have a public benefit, would open a can of worms and encourage residents on the other 22 private roads to ask for an easement, too.
The city later plans to adopt an ordinance to determine the road standards necessary to receive public services, such as being wide enough for curbside trash collection or being paved for plowing.
Noonan and other residents said they were shocked to learn that it would be the residents’ responsibility to make sure the road they live on is up to standard so it could receive services. Others who spoke at the meetings were worried they wouldn’t have time to set up a private road association to plow their road before the winter if the city stopped plowing services.
“We need these services,” resident Martha Wilson said. “They’re important for us to maintain our daily living.”
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THE LAW
This discussion began when the city conducted a legal review of its private roads. Deteriorating conditions resulting from limited maintenance made it difficult to continue providing public services like trash collection and snowplowing, and the city had discussions about discontinuing services.
The city’s legal counsel notified staff that there were legal restrictions about providing services on private roads.
In 1989, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that public funds couldn’t be used to maintain or plow privately owned roads.
One source of liability for the city would be damage to private property like hitting a mailbox or scraping a car while providing public services, said Cameron Ferrante, the city solicitor. Another would be related to the misappropriation of taxpayer funds.
“If the city is expending funds for an impermissible purpose, then arguably, taxpayers have a right or an opportunity to complain and seek to have those funds returned one way or another,” Ferrante said.
THE ROADS
Breton Street was listed as a private road during the first facilities and streets committee meeting. Since then, the city uncovered records from 1957 when Westbrook had accepted ownership of Breton Street. Since it is a public street, the city can continue plowing and curbside trash collection.
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Three properties are located on a private portion of Dodge Street. City staff recommended that the city solicit a public easement so that it may continue plowing, as long as owners conduct maintenance to keep the road plowable. Currently, residents don’t receive curbside trash collection. They bring their trash to Brown Street, a public street, and that will continue.
Beatrice Lane is a gravel road with one home. Staff recommended that the city stop plowing and continue to offer trash collection at the nearest public street intersection.
The city provides plowing and curbside trash collection to Peterson Road, but councilors voted, 5-2, to stop plowing and to offer trash collection at a public street intersection.
Begin Lane is a paved road with four homes or lots. Staff recommended that trash collection continue at the nearest public street, and the city would request an easement to continue plowing. The council voted, 4-3, to approve the recommendation, with some councilors saying there wasn’t enough public benefit to justify using taxpayer funds for plowing.
There was debate about whether Edgecomb Road was public or private, but staff said they haven’t found evidence that the city ever accepted it as a public road or constructed it. The council approved the recommendation to solicit an easement to continue snowplowing while the current property owners of one of the homes on the street continue to reside there.
Mill Lane is a private road with 11 homes or lots. The city owns land at the end of the road, and it is the only way to get to Breton Street, which is a public street. The council approved the city’s recommendation to provide plowing and curbside trash collection as long as the road is in acceptable condition. It is currently in deteriorating condition, according to city staff, and the residents will be responsible for maintaining it so it is passable and plowable.
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It is difficult to plow on the private portion of Austin Street, a narrow gravel road with 11 homes or lots, according to staff. The city recommended ending plowing and soliciting a public easement to continue curbside trash collection. Due to concerns about giving residents enough time to set up a road association before plowing stops, councilors voted against the city’s recommendation and instead unanimously passed a motion to solicit an easement and continue trash collection and plowing. Since the Austin Street trash collection recommendations were adopted, there will be no changes to the services provided on Adams Way, located at the end of the street.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The city will now notify residents who live on the streets that will need a public easement to provide services. It will determine a reasonable deadline for residents to deliver a public easement to the city for each road.
For the areas where the city is seeking an easement, the city will continue to provide services during the transition period as residents are putting the documents together for the easement. If the city doesn’t obtain an easement, the services would end.
City staff will draft an ordinance defining the road maintenance necessary for a public easement to be accepted, which they will then bring to the council.
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Tagged: public works, taxes, transportation, westbrook city council
Salomé Cloteaux is a community reporter covering Scarborough and Westbrook. She was born in France but lived in Indiana for most of her life before moving to Portland in November 2025. Salomé has a degree. More by Salomé Cloteaux
