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Moosehead Lake is still in the crosshairs of development crosshairs of developer Plum Creek, but citizen opposition has sent the real estate giant back to the drawing board.
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The Moosehead Lake area represents an amazing stretch of wilderness full of recreational opportunities in secluded coves and extensive forests. Unfortunately, an out-of-state real estate behemoth, Plum Creek, is planning to convert the wilderness into a tourist trap, threatening a tradition of forest management and public access to those forests.
Plum Creek purchased close to 1 million acres of timberland in Maine, including some in the North Woods, in 1998. Plum Creek proposed a massive development plan for the Moosehead Lake region in April of 2005, which included changing the zoning from timberland and backwoods recreational uses to development of 421,000 acres around Moosehead Lake, including 975 house lots, 58 subdivisions, and two resorts as well as 750 additional residential units within resorts and 480 shore lots.
Plum Creek revising proposal
Plum Creek withdrew their original petition to the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC), the agency in charge of maintaining the undeveloped nature of the unorganized territories, in response to the intense public pressure. However, they quietly submitted a revised petition in April of 2006 with very few changes. Now, Plum Creek has withdrawn its petition again in order to make additional revisions. Public hearings have been postponed until the fall, when the third proposal is filed.
Keep the heat on Plum Creek
Environment Maine’s efforts last summer talking to over 30,000 Maine people about the Plum Creek proposal and several public scoping sessions, demonstrated enormous public backlash against the proposal. Now more than ever we need to keep up public pressure and ensure that the new request dies entirely or limits development and restricts it to the existing communities in the region, such as towns like Greenville and Rockwood. Our members will need to continue their involvement and show their opposition at the hearings later this year.
Burnt Jacket Proposal Denied
This past summer, the LURC denied the Burnt Jacket development, which would have put 70 house lots on the shores of Moosehead Lake. The LURC denied the petition because of inadequate provisions to maintain the natural character of the unusually pristine and visually prominent shoreland. This recent action by LURC could be good news for protecting Moosehead Lake. |
