Two York lobstermen have teamed up with the local land trust to purchase Sewall's Bridge dock on the south side of the York River and preserve it as working waterfront.

The dock, used by commercial fishermen for years, previously had been bought by a private homeowner who rented space to pleasure boaters and had plans to develop a home on the site.

Now, a $710,000 deal to buy the property and return it to commercial use will help save a bit of York Harbor's fast-disappearing working waterfront. The harbor has already lost three docks in the past two decades to development pressure, including one that was recently sold for more than $1 million, converted into a home and then resold for $2.3 million.

York's shrinking commercial waterfront mirrors what's happening all along the coast as developers of high-priced homes buy up properties once used to unload fish and lobsters.

"In York Harbor here, we've lost really all but one of our commercial piers, and that's the one I'm currently renting," said Mark Sewall, one of the lobstermen who bought the Sewall's Bridge dock. "All the lobster pounds and all that are gone."

Under the terms of the agreement, Sewall and Jeff Donnell put up $300,000 to help meet the $710,000 sale price of the rebuilt, 2,290-square-foot dock and about a sixth of an acre of land. The York Land Trust raised another $410,000 to buy the conservation easement that will protect it from development.

The fishermen accepted a value for the easement that was less than fair market value, said Doreen MacGillis, executive director of the York Land Trust.

The Sewall's Bridge deal is believed to be the first time a land trust has played a role in protecting working waterfront. Those involved in its development hope it will serve as a model for saving other scenic, working harbors along the Maine coast.

"This is definitely breaking new ground, this model of a local land trust partnering with the fishing community to share the rising cost of waterfront property," said Elizabeth Sheehan, fisheries project director for Coastal Enterprises Inc., a nonprofit community development corporation in Wiscasset.

Sheehan co-authored a study last year that documented the pressures commercial fishermen are feeling from a growing coastal population, rising taxes and the real estate boom. The study found that only 25 miles of working waterfront remain in the 7,000 miles of tidal coastline between Kittery and Eastport.

The Sewall's Bridge project will be a small step in reversing that trend.

"It's adding 85 more feet to Maine's 25 miles of working waterfront," Sheehan said.

The dealmaking began in January when Mark Sewall and Jeff Donnell met with Joseph Donnelly, a member of the Harbor Board, and others who might be able to help them save the dock.

Sewall lives close by and rents space for his boat, the Kelpa, at a dock adjacent to the Sewall's Bridge dock. Donnell also ties up his boat, the Cindy L, there.

"This is my neighborhood," Sewall said. "I live right there, and it's right against Sewall's Bridge, which was built by my family way back when."

When the Sewall's Bridge dock went up for sale the first time, Sewall and Donnell wanted to buy the property, but it was bought before they could put a deal together.

"The previous owner razed the house and rebuilt the dock," Sewall said. "Everything was in pretty hard shape when he bought it. He had intended to build a large residence there. He had the building permits and everything. It was essentially gone."

But then the property went back on the market last year, and the two men tried again. After their initial meeting with Donnelly, other people and organizations got involved, including the York Land Trust.

"At first we had to sort of scratch our heads," MacGillis said. "We hadn't done anything like this before. The land trust, of course, has been involved with landowners in preserving working forests and working farms, but working waterfront was truly new to us."

The Nature Conservancy helped with the nuts and bolts of putting together the conservation easement. To help pay for it, the land trust got a loan from Coastal Enterprises. The rest of the easement funds are being raised through private sources such as the Libra Foundation, the Island Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation.

As things started to come together, Sewall still worried that the dock would slip through their fingers.

"Even this past year, as we've been working on it, (the owner's) had several people interested in it," Sewall said. "We had a lot of work into it, and a lot of times we thought we were going to lose it."

Sewall and the more than 30 other lobstermen who live in the York area have watched in frustration over the years as more and more of the working harbor has been turned into high-priced residential areas.

"People are willing to spend unbelievable amounts of money to buy these places, and we can't compete with it," Sewall said.

Sewall said he and Donnell will tie their boats at the new dock, patch their gear there and build a bait shed. Eventually, they may do some wholesale lobster business there, too.

Other than that, he doesn't expect things to change much. And that, of course, is the whole point.

"We're so fortunate here in York," Sewall said. "We have a lot of people with vision that are very generous."

Staff photo by John Patriquin

York lobsterman Mark Sewall sits on a rebuilt pier that he and fellow lobsterman Jeff Donnell helped buy along with the York Land Trust to preserve as a working pier. The deal is believed to be the first time a land trust has played a role in protecting working waterfront.