GARDINER — City councilors have accepted a boundary line agreement with Farmingdale that won’t affect property owners, but may create minor confusion for code enforcement.

Eugene Moreau, a former Farmingdale selectman, presented the agreement at Gardiner’s City Council meeting Wednesday night establishing the boundary line on the south side of Northern Avenue. The agreement solved the problem of tax maps in each town having a different boundary.

Thayer Engineering of Farmingdale was hired to survey the route and come up with a solution, part of which requires Farmingdale to maintain a section of sidewalk that was previously maintained by the city of Gardiner.

Curt Lebel, Gardiner’s city assessor, said the code enforcement issues that arise from the agreement can be worked out. For example, a Gardiner resident on Northern Avenue may want to change the location of a driveway; the curb would be owned by Farmingdale, so the resident would need to work with officials from that community.

“But it is kind of an oddity to have a street in one town and a house in another,” Lebel said.

Moreau said the issue came up when the town of Farmingdale made plans to repave the lower end of Northern Avenue from Maine Avenue to Sheldon Street. The town wanted to install new catch basins from Maine Avenue to Sheldon Street and replace sidewalks that include new curbs, he said.

Councilman Ken Holmes wanted to make sure none of the property owners along that stretch of road would lose any land.

“We want to clarify where the town line is between Gardiner and Farmingdale,” Moreau said. “Any changes are going to be within the right-of-way of Northern Avenue and Adams Street. No private property will be affected.”

Gardiner City Manager Scott Morelli said Gardiner’s tax maps had shown the city owning the road from, and including, Adams Street to a short distance before Maine Avenue. Farmingdale’s maps showed the town owning the road from, and including, Adams Street to the center line of Northern Avenue, continuing down to Maine Avenue.

He said the agreement will not change the status of Farmingdale and Gardiner residents.

“The good news is we’re not asking anyone to switch affiliations,” Morelli said.

Moreau said Farmingdale’s tax maps show the line at the center of Northern Avenue and Gardiner’s tax maps has the line running along the north side of the street.

“When Farmingdale received it’s incorporation papers in 1852, it very clearly says the town line was on the south side, so this needs to be clarified,” he said.

If the town line were to run down the center of the road, Moreau said Gardiner would be responsible for maintaining several catch basins.

Under the new agreement, Farmingdale will be responsible for the cost of replacing them, he said.

Moreau said the Farmingdale town line on Adams Street, which councilors approved Wednesday, will run along the east side through the Gardiner Apartments. He said Farmingdale and Gardiner have no records of either community ever officially accepting Adams Street as their own.

“Right now we have one side, Gardiner has the other side, and the state has it going from one side at one end to the opposite side on the other end,” Moreau said. “So, it needs that clarification.”

Mechele Cooper — 621-5663

mcooper@centralmaine.com