Plum Creek and its stakeholders have accepted state regulators’ conditions for approving what would be Maine’s largest development proposal — 975 house lots and two large resorts near Moosehead Lake — and are moving on to the project’s next review phase, officials said Friday.
The Forest Society of Maine and the Maine Bureau of Parks and Land were the last of the half-dozen or so implementing parties or major players in Plum Creek’s plan to approve changes proposed by the Land Use Regulation Commission, said Catherine Carroll, LURC’s executive director.
Those approvals came on or about LURC’s Tuesday approval deadline, Carroll said.
“Everybody has agreed that they can accept the broad recommendations the commission has made,” Carroll said Friday. “This has forwarded everyone along toward eventual approval but before we can get that we have to get through the tier-2 issues that are in front of us.”
As Carroll described them, tier-2 issues are the detail work and very particular commission recommendations on everything from developing standards for vegetative clearing on development sites to agreements on the language of conservation easements.
She anticipated that approvals for these would come fairly easily, with eventual final approval coming from staff and the commission in the spring.
“I am pleased to see that this process is moving along,” Carroll said. “Right from the get-go, it has been fair, impartial, thorough and transparent. I am pleased to see the parties coming to a place where they can all make this concept plan be consistent with the commission’s rules for allowing concept plans.”
Luke Muzzy, Plum Creek’s project manager, did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment on Friday.
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