L.L. Bean and the Mann Cemetery Association have come to an agreement following a lengthy dispute regarding access to Mann Cemetery on the grounds of Bean’s Lower Flying Point Paddling Center.

L.L. Bean has offered to deed a strip of land extending from Lower Flying Point Road to the cemetery, which the cemetery association would develop into a gravel-road access to the burial ground.

Until the parties reached the agreement – conveyed by letter to Town Planner Donna Larson on Aug. 31 – Bean had sought a site-plan amendment that would remove the gravel road that runs across the paddling center, which had been used traditionally as access to the cemetery. The company has grassed over most of the old gravel road, and offered the Mann Cemetery Association an alternative right of way, which the association rejected.

“We are committed to working toward an agreeable resolution with the Mann Cemetery Association, which will be considered (Tuesday, Sept. 13)  at the Project Review Board,” L.L. Bean spokeswoman Carolyn Beem said last Thursday.

The Project Review Board was scheduled to conduct a public hearing Tuesday night on a site-plan amendment that would put the agreement into effect. Board Chairman Cliff Goodall said he was not sure if the board would vote on the site plan amendment following the public hearing, held after the Tri-Town Weekly’s print deadline.

Kenn Mann of the cemetery association declined to comment, instead saying that the group at some point would issue a press release. Goodall confirmed learning of the proposed settlement two weeks ago.

Robert O’Brien, temporary assistant to the town planner, described the proposed right of way.

“They have adjusted the southern boundary line about the width of a vehicle with a turnaround to the Mann burial ground,” O’Brien said. “All of this will be deeded to the Mann Cemetery Association. The southern tip runs from the from Lower Flying Point Road to the burial ground. They have a straight shot from the main road. Mann Cemetery will own it and make any improvements they want.”

Lawyers Michael Mahoney, working for Bean, and James Katsiaficas for Mann Cemetery Association, signed the letter to Larson. They jointly submitted the request to the Project Review Board for the new site-plan amendment. The letter stated that the agreement came “after lengthy discussions, and with the full support of MCA.”

Mann Cemetery lies to the rear of the main building at the L.L. Bean Lower Flying Point Paddling Center.