Take the 400,000 acres by eminent domain and do not give Plum Creek 1 red cent in return. LURC needs to "just say no" to rezoning anything in the unorganized territories. Let the real estate developers do their thing in Greenville, it is not so far away. Probably LURC will roll over and give up Lily Bay so these greedy pigs wil stop whining. Who needs million dollar camps in this market anyway?

I wonder, in the current depressed real estate market, who is really thinking about building a multi-million dollar home in this very rural area that does not have any of the services the larger towns have? I think it will be a long time before any of this happens.

Should LURC approve this proposal, Greenville will have headaches that they never would have imagined. It will never be the same as we know it. Plum Creek has a habit of "muscling" their way around in portions of the country. The locals end up the losers.

THE APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOLLOWED BY LURC WHICH CONCLUDED THAT THE UNDEVELOPED TIMBERLAND IN THE MOOSEHEAD LAKE REGION IS AN IDEAL SITE TO LOCATE THE LARGEST COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN STATE HISTORY VIOLATES STATE REGULATORY LAWS AND IS A RESULT OF A CORRUPT HEARING PROCESS WHERE PUBLIC AND WILDLIFE PROFESSIONALS COMMENTS WERE IGNORED.

MAINE LAWS STATE THAT DEVELOPMENT OF UNORGANIZED TERRITORY SHOULD BE LOCATED ADJACENT TO EXISTING DEVELOPMENT UNLESS A NEED TO DEVELOP ISOLATED TIMBERLAND AREAS CAN BE DEMONSTRATED.

THERE REALLY IS A GENUINE ECONOMIC NEED IN THE AREA FOR ONE LARGE COMMERCIAL AND RESORT ZONE WITH AN ADDITIONAL 500 RESIDENTIAL UNITS BETWEEN GREENVILLE AND ROCKWOOD, AND I AM HAPPY THAT FUTURE DEVELOPMENT IS APPROPRIATELY PROPOSED NEAR MOOSE MOUNTAIN.

HOWEVER, FOR LURC TO HAVE US BELIEVE THAT IT IS IN THE PUBLICS BEST INTEREST THAT THE MOOSEHEAD REGION SHOULD SACRIFICE ITS MOST VALUABLE WILDLIFE RESOURCES TO THE NORTH (SUCH AS LILY BAY AND BRASSUA LAKE) BECAUSE OF SOME INCREDIBLE ECONOMIC NEED IN THE AREA FOR MORE ADDITIONAL, COMPETING, MEGA-RESORTS AND SPRAWLING RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENTS THAT WILL RUIN THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF THE REGION AND CAUSE UNDO HARM TO WILDLIFE RESOURCES (AGAIN IN VIOLATION OF MAINE REGULATORY LAWS) SHOWS HOW FAR REMOVED THE LURC BOARD IS FROM BEING ABLE TO BALANCE SENSIBLE DEVELOPMENT WITH PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION.

I URGE ALL GROUPS CONCERNED WITH SENSIBLY BALANCING DEVELOPMENT WITH CONSERVATION TO CONTINUE TO INSIST THE PLAN BE REVISED UNTIL IT MEETS STATE REGULATORY CRITERIA FOR;

1. DEMONSTRATED NEED TO DEVELOP ISOLATED AREAS

2. PROTECTION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES FROM UNDO HARM

3. MAINTAINING THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF THE REGION

4. INCORPORATING THE WRITTEN AND VERBAL COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC HEARINGS CALLING FOR THE SIZE AND SPRAWL OF THE DEVELOPMENT TO BE REDUCED

It is no surprise that the Nature Conservancy supported the big monied Plum Creek in the destruction of Moosehead.

Read the Washington Post's expose of the Nature Conservancy at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9888-2003May3?language=printer

How do you say GREENWASHING?

"The Conservancy has logged forests, engineered a $64 million deal paving the way for opulent houses on fragile grasslands and drilled for natural gas under the last breeding ground of an endangered bird species.

The nonprofit Conservancy has traveled far beyond its humble beginnings, when it relied on small donors and acquired a few small plots at a time. Its governing board and advisory council now include executives and directors from one or more oil companies, chemical producers, auto manufacturers, mining concerns, logging operations and coal-burning electric utilities".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9888-2003May3?language=printer

'jaygee' --VERY interesting.

Thank you.

How about this for a 'like/kind' scenario: not too many years ago LURC was an ''advisory'' commission---period.

I have little doubt [any] concerns about a sprawling [anything!!] in this plan is decades away - within 3 years the eminent inflation [ when all the freshly printed / horded cash hits the market ] will put this project out of reach of the current target Mkt..

Further: Augusta's decades of ignoring everything N. of Bangor [except increase of game fees] has all but insured only border patrol will be left anyway.

The seeds of N. Maine's demise have been being planted for years - it will be a hollow harvest.

Someboby neeeds to explain to (bald-scuitchi) that his administration is Dirigo us off a high cliff with nothing but pain and broken dreams waiting at the bottom

Only the Rich will be able to enjoy these new development plans. It's not for the benifit of Maine's people. How about we keep our valued forests intact, and designate all of it as carbon credits. U.S. and World Corporations that puff smog into the air, could pay us Mainers to not cut down our forests, so the trees could suck up their pollution. For Maine is the Nation's tailpipe. And we need as many trees as we can get to suck up the pollution that comes our way, and to slow down Climate Change. That's what we do with rainforests, buy carbon credits to prevent rainforest to be cut down. Why not in Maine. This would make our forests more valuable and help Maine people havest the trees more sustainably. Lets leave Maine's hundreds of year old forests intact for the future generations of mainers and Earth friendly tourists to enjoy. And from what I understand, Green Business is the wave of the future and investment, and nothing of Plum Creek's proposal subdivisions are Green friendly.

Take only memories, leave only footprints.

--blueskiesaboveme--: your ideas might have possibilities except ; Maine has but one designated area [ a former Pingree tract N. and W. of Ashland ] that even approaches -old forest- the remaining acreage is harvested in an 'as needed' basis resulting in a 60 year growth ( average ) for most of the so called N. woods.

--: have you not seen the clear cuts and Regen. areas ?

Further, the punitive carbon credit concept being contemplated is based [as best] on subjective science-though not as far as the algore crown is concerned.

And lastly-and ironically-- the critical aspect of any dialogue concerning the N. woods seemingly leaves out the fact that anyone who has access does so at the behest of the collection of private land owners who make up the N.woods

It is NOT 'our' land. Do you/we want anyone [Augusta/LURC] telling us what to do with our private property ?

What about all the 'Keep out/Private property' signs that dominate the rest of the state---shall we mandate the disposition of their land as well ?

i think you people should all get together and buy the property you know we all get upset when someone tells us what to do with our property but we have no problem telling every body else what to do with theirs. unless of course you are a certain women that burns down other peoples camps then the state cant be invovled because its private property .

Sebec39 is right on the money. In this economy, it isn't feasible to develop these speculative projects. No lenders are interested in risky projects right now, and there are so few buyers that the projects aren't worth the gamble from a developer's perspective even if they can get funded. The ship has passed as far as PC's plans are concerned, and by the time it comes back around, many things will have changed on both sides of the coin.

Good lord, buld this thing already. How many more opportunities for public commentary do we need. This development will be great for the State and is exactly the kind of growth that Maine needs.

All the houses are for sale in neighboring towns, mills shutting down, who the hell wants to buy a new house. That is a Big number for lot's. It's probably obvious that people from Massachussettes will have the cash in their pocket to purchase one of these but it won't do any good for us hard working mainer's that find it hard enough to make ends meet with what we already got.

CeeBlue--- You can keep your land, and everyone else that lives in Maine can keep their land too. I suggest, why not get paid through carbon credits to be good stewards of your land. For one day, you'll be gone, do you want your contribution to the earth and to future generations be a over priced housing developments - suburbia that benefit the rich, or a natural Forest that benifits nature and to those that like to enjoy the woods in it's natural state.