ASSOCIATED PRESS • November 22, 2022
Maine officials are close to finalizing a land use agreement that supporters said would protect one of the most rural corners of the country from overdevelopment years after environmentalists raised concerns about McMansions rising in the area. The land use plan is an outgrowth of a yearslong debate about a large development once planned for Maine’s remote North Woods. Timber company Weyerhaeuser once planned to build two resorts and about 1,000 home lots there, but scrapped the idea in 2019, citing economic concerns. The proposed planning document would rezone hundreds of acres owned by Weyerhaeuser. A new proposal “protects important habitat” and “minimizes interference with natural resource based activities such as forestry, agriculture, and recreation,” the Maine Land Use Planning Commission said.