Plum Creek News & Updates

OpEd

Caroline Pryor: A golden opportunity for Plum Creek planners
By BDN Staff
Saturday, February 24, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

As a former Land Use Regulation Commission member, I have been following the progression of Plum Creek’s proposed development plan for the Moosehead Lake region with great interest and concern.

I served on LURC in the mid-90s when the current Comprehensive Land Use Plan was developed. A major policy the commission discussed at length — and for which there was significant public support — was the appropriate location for new development. The commission agreed it was essential to locate new development in or near existing towns, and LURC’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan now includes that policy.

The most recent version of Plum Creek’s plan for the Moosehead Lake region includes 58 subdivisions scattered 10, 20 and even 30 miles away from Greenville. Plum Creek’s plan is not consistent with LURC policy (or any policy that aims to encourage nonsprawling development), and so I was very pleased to hear that Plum Creek has withdrawn its proposal so it can be revised.

Plum Creek now has a golden opportunity to revise its plan so it is consistent with LURC’s Comprehensive Plan policies. This would have the added benefit of serving as a model for other landowners, who will undoubtedly propose more development schemes in the future. To achieve this goal, Plum Creek’s revised plan needs to include two critical things.

First, decrease the amount of development and locate it in or near the existing town of Greenville, the village of Rockwood and the existing downhill ski resort. This makes the most sense from a land use perspective, and the communities’ willingness to embrace a more concentrated development proposal will test the hypothesis that these communities do, indeed, want to grow significantly. Maine is trying to stop sprawling development patterns, and Moosehead Lake is an obvious place to put an end to this consumptive and expensive type of land use.

Second, permanently protect the beautiful shorelines and vast forests that support eagles, moose, lynx, fisher and bear. These features of the Plum Creek land holdings are the essence of the famous Moosehead region, and also the backbone of the nature-based tourist economy that is so important to Greenville now and in the future.

What are the areas that should be permanently protected? The remote, northwest shore of Moosehead Lake steeped in history. Prong, Indian and Upper Wilson ponds where families can paddle in silence and see a loon or moose. The north shore of Long Pond and the western half of Brassua Lake, big lakes on the edge of the largest undeveloped forest in the United States, east of the Mississippi River. And the Lily Bay Peninsula, whose shoreline and hillsides are just across from Lily Bay State Park, a jewel in the crown of Maine’s state park system — a place where many kids and adults had their first North Woods adventure, paddling to tiny islands, swimming in the clear, cold waters of Moosehead Lake, gazing at stars in a dark night sky. Scattered subdivisions, houses and resorts would destroy all this.

Plum Creek has, disappointingly, revised its plan once. The second plan was marginally different from the original. Version two included the same number of house lots, all 975 of them, and the houses were in 90 percent of the same locations.

I urge Plum Creek to commit to real and meaningful change in its next development proposal. I hope this time the company will skip the advertising campaigns that try to tell us how great the new proposal is. If it’s good, the people of Maine can figure it out themselves.

The Moosehead Lake region is too special to the people of Greenville, the people of Maine, and to future generations everywhere to sacrifice it for scattered vacation homes.

Caroline Pryor lives in Mount Desert.

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