In the fall of 1968, a legislative subcommittee published a report sounding an alarm about camps, roads and other development threatening the unique character of Maine’s “Big Woods.”
Recreational development is inevitable, the report read, but the economic pressures driving those changes need not “spoil the wildlands.”
“Properly done, development can fit into the surroundings,” the authors wrote. “It can provide safe and healthful recreation for camp owners and their visitors. It can preserve most of the wilderness appearance for those who can’t buy. … It can allow more people to come in and spoil less land, which could make all the difference to a region’s economy.”
More than four decades later, the state agency that was created as a result of that report — the Land Use Regulation Commission — is still at the center of the effort to control so-called “wilderness sprawl.”
And for the next three and a half weeks, the commission is soliciting public feedback on the latest draft of a document that guides how LURC regulates development within the 10.4 million acres of the state’s Unorganized Territory.
Three public hearings will be held in the coming week on the proposed revisions to LURC ‘s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, commonly known as “the CLUP.” The CLUP has been revised several times since the commission’s formation, the last being in 1997. The public hearings will be held from 1 to 4:30 p.m. and from 6 to 10 p.m. on:
• Monday, Sept. 28, at the Senator Inn in Augusta.
• Tuesday, Sept. 29, at the Ramada Inn in Bangor.
• Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Presque Isle Inn and Convention Center in Presque Isle.
The commission’s ability — or lack thereof — to prevent excessive development in remote areas and to guide it into more appropriate locations has been a major topic of debate throughout the CLUP revision process.
It will also likely be a focal point during the upcoming hearings.
Environmental and conservation groups would like to see the commission move toward tougher regulation of development — something that would have to be done through new rules or legislative changes. Some of these groups point to Plum Creek’s enormous Moosehead Lake housing and resort plan, which received commission approval this past week, as the latest evidence of development pressure on the Unorganized Territory.
The jurisdiction’s large landowners and some residents, meanwhile, have urged the commission to tone down what they see as alarmist language in the draft. They also suggest the plan focuses too much on development and too little on landowners’ efforts to protect land — such as the 400,000 acres of conservation in Plum Creek’s Moosehead Lake concept plan.
According to LURC figures, between 1971 and 2005 the commission permitted 8,136 new dwellings within the jurisdiction. While the draft CLUP describes that rate of development as moderate, it also raises concerns about LURC ’s ability to control the location of that development.
LURC had no role in siting roughly two-thirds of those 8,100-plus dwellings because they were exempt from the subdivision review process under current state law.
While many of those lots were in appropriate areas, that wasn’t due to anything the commission did. Without recommending specific policy changes, the draft CLUP states the commission should consider new ways to better guide development in the future.
“The commission has come to the conclusion in this document that we don’t have all of the tools necessary to ensure appropriate location of development,” said Sarah Giffen, a LURC planner and key author of the draft plan.
More year-round dwellings
Generally speaking, the vacation homes and year-round houses constructed today in many parts of Maine’s backwoods bear little resemblance to the modest, traditional camps of years past.
The most egregious example often cited by environmental groups is a massive estate rumored to be worth $15 million built by a New York investment executive on the shores of Moosehead in Tomhegan Township. The seasonal estate includes a private airstrip, a trout pond and a quarry.
Most new dwellings in the jurisdiction are far less ostentatious. But LURC data show a definite trend toward year-round use.
In the 1970s, roughly half of all dwellings in the Unorganized Territory were constructed for four-season use. Today, that figure is 69 percent. Additionally, 45 percent of the building permits issued by LURC since 1971 were for expansions to existing dwellings.
Eliza Townsend, deputy commissioner of the Department of Conservation, said the 1997 plan does not adequately address the types of development routinely seen today.
“I just don’t think it is good policy to operate under an outdated plan,” Townsend said.
Not everyone agrees with LURC’s interpretation of the data — or that the plan needs major revisions, however.
During work sessions on an earlier draft held last year, local residents accused LURC staff of catering to the environmental lobby and groups intent on restricting land to “primitive,” nonmotorized recreation. While part of the outrage was fed by rumors or misinformation about the plan, the anger underscored the suspicion and resentment harbored by some residents of the UT against the commission.
Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, which represents most of the state’s largest landowners, said the current draft is an improvement. But his members would like to see more of their concerns reflected in the final language as well as more recognition of positive trends, such as large-scale land conservation.
“We think they’re just not hitting the tone in the right way,” Strauch said. “I acknowledge they are listening. We just have more to say and want them to listen more.”
Strauch pointed out that according to LURC’s own figures, nearly 90 percent of all development has occurred within a mile of a public road. Private landowners — whether large timber companies or camp owners — are concerned about any regulatory changes that could affect the long-term value of their assets, he said.
Cathy Johnson, the North Woods project director with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said her organization would like to see specific recommendations for improving the commission’s ability to guide development into appropriate locations.
One option absent from the draft plan but supported by NRCM would be to end the law that allows landowners to create two lots in five years on their land without commission approval. That would require a legislative change.
Johnson said she believes the plan is headed in the right direction. The key, she added, will be for LURC to follow through with the vision laid out in the final plan.
“The important thing will be for the commission to implement the recommendations,” Johnson said. “A comprehensive plan that doesn’t get implemented doesn’t serve much purpose.”
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