Old Lyme – The owner of a riverfront property at the center of a long dispute over public access to Tantummaheag Landing said this week he has uncovered proof the town has no right to the contested strip of land that bisects his estate.

George Frampton on Monday told the Board of Selectmen that 300-year-old meeting minutes and land records show the town hasn’t had any rightful claim to Tantummaheag Landing since 1713.

He argued town officials knew about the documents but failed to disclose the information to him or the public.

But First Selectman Tim Griswold on Wednesday said he’s doubtful new information, if any, will change the town’s contention that the area in dispute is a town road because it has been consistently used by the public for hundreds of years.

He denied suppressing any information.

“I don’t think we have a secret stash of paperwork that isn’t available to others,” he said. “I’d be surprised.”

The narrow parcel along Lord’s Cove has long been enjoyed by residents and visitors for purposes such as launching kayaks or watching the murmuration of the swallows over Goose Island.

Neighbors began to complain about being denied access to the landing soon after Frampton and his wife purchased 12-19 Tantummaheag Road in late 2020 for $1.15 million. Subsequent moves by town officials toward marking the area as public led to what has become an ongoing back and forth between Frampton and town attorney Jack Collins. Negotiations have played out in mostly private talks with the occasional public statement.

A report last year from consulting attorney Elton B. Harvey of the Farmington-based Isaac Law Offices said land records going back to 1701 revealed the intent to create one or more public ways from what is now Route 156 to the cove. He pointed to the landing as part of the resulting “highway” that has been used to access the cove ever since.

But Frampton this week said his research showed a 1713 agreement between landowner Richard Lord and local officials moved the public right-of-way outside the boundaries of what is now Frampton’s property. The agreement also specified all public use would end with Lord’s death, which Frampton said occurred in 1727.

Documents unearthed two years ago by Frampton, who was an assistant special prosecutor during the Watergate hearings, show the story goes back to a 1701 deal struck between Lord and local officials after the landowner erected a fence around a separate property that turned out to encroach on town-owned land. That’s when Lord agreed to provide public access to the landing in exchange.

Frampton on Wednesday said he found the 1713 agreement and related records after looking more deeply into documents cited in the legal consultant’s report. He alleged the Board of Selectmen and its advisers were fully aware of the ownership trail but did not share the information with the public.

“It’s all been one big cloud of black smoke,” Frampton wrote in a prepared statement shared with selectmen.

Griswold said he’d submit the documents provided by Frampton to Collins for evaluation, but added he was skeptical there’s “anything different than what was said in the past.”

Griswold said his viewpoint is that the landing has been used as a town road for all this time – regardless “of who owns the real estate” underneath it all.

“The road is a town road, and that’s the salient point,” he said.

Griswold said the town wants signage marking the site as public and clear rules governing pedestrian and vehicular access.

Frampton in negotiations said he is willing to allow pedestrian access under certain conditions.

A written proposal from Frampton, a portion of which he shared with The Day, calls for the formation of a nonprofit trail association that could decide to charge up to $25 per year for members who sign a liability waiver to use the unmarked landing on foot.

“We’ve proposed a trail association akin to the access at Lord Farms in Lyme in which local residents sign up and sign a liability waiver, a fair and reasonable balance between private rights and the desire for public access and use,” he said in his statement to selectmen. “This is precisely the way the neighboring town of Lyme treats an identical situation.”

He also called for a public, written apology acknowledging the town’s “failure to be forthright about the status of the Landing for the past two years, in language to be agreed upon by both parties.”

e.regan@theday.com