AUGUSTA – Steven Wight was renominated for another term on the Land Use Regulation Commission with an 8-3 vote Tuesday over vehement opposition from the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and other opponents.

It was standing room only in the Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee room Tuesday as the testimony, pro and con, went past the three-hour mark. Of the more than 75 people in attendance, 36 testified for Wight and six against before the committee members voted.

It was the positive testimony that carried the day, Wight said after the vote. “I am gratified by the response of the committee which was willing to turn around. When they came in here, they were definitely opposed. I don’t think it was a repudiation of SAM. But it sent a message that a lot of sportsmen don’t feel they are represented by SAM,” Wight said.

George Smith, the director of SAM, said, “Hearings do matter and testimony does matter. I thought it would be 8-3 against when we walked in. I don’t think it was a repudiation of SAM because many committee members agreed with our positions on the issues and said LURC has a lot of problems to work on. This speaks well for our other bills on the Allagash.”

During the day, Wight, the chairman of LURC, was described as either a dedicated, balanced public official or an elitist who wants to keep the Allagash Waterway and other wilderness areas for the privileged few.

Kay Rand, the chief of staff for Gov. Angus King, told the committee that the governor renominated the Newry selectman because of his 13 years of “integrity and impartiality” on LURC. In that time, Wight has voted on 623 permits, some of which were controversial, and some disagreement would be expected, she said. Wight voted to approve 42 out of 43 boat ramps in 13 years, she said.

The nominee told the committee that his family goes back several generations into the Maine woods. Since he joined LURC in 1987, the organization has made decisions, some unpopular, concerning the 10.5 million acres it serves as a planning board. The most controversial decisions have been on a high-stakes bingo operation in Albany Township, a boat-launching ramp at Spencer Lake, and a canoe launch facility at John’s Bridge on the Allagash River, he said.

Wight said he has developed a “balanced record” on public access that justifies his renomination. “I strongly believe in public access but not unlimited access to all, at the same place at the same time,” he said. He said he voted against the Spencer Lake facility as “a slide toward loss of remoteness” and voted against the John’s Bridge facility as a “detriment to the wilderness experience.”

Leading the opposition to Wight was SAM director Smith.

“We simply have a nominee before us who is wrong for LURC and wrong for the people of the north country. He has been no friend of ours in this battle over access. We cannot afford to give him another term. He seems to believe that [residents of the north country] should be denied access to the public lands and waters they own, that are part of their heritage.”

Wight has served 13 years on LURC, or almost twice as many years as legislators are allowed to serve before they are forced out of office by term limits, Smith said. “Perhaps 13 years is enough,” Smith said.

The people of Jackman were “devastated” by LURC’s decision to deny a boat ramp at Spencer Lake. Now that the land has been sold to private developers, a chance for public access has been lost, Smith said. “That decision demonstrated Mr. Wight’s philosophy that the public ought not to have access to the waters it owns, that the privileged few who own property there or can afford to otherwise access these waters can enjoy them in splendid isolation while sportsmen and other Mainers can’t get there from here,” Smith said.

Wight’s vote against a canoe launch ramp at John’s Bridge “tells the people of the north country that they don’t count and we don’t care about them,” Smith said.

Jeff Rosenblatt of Albany Township told the committee that the LURC action on the bingo operation there was “made corrupt by the unfairness of the process and the illegality of the decision. A person who would preside over, encourage and participate in such conduct is not qualified to be a LURC commissioner.”

Department of Conservation Commissioner Ron Lovaglio disagreed, however, calling Wight a “healing centrist” who had become a “scapegoat” in the argument over wilderness access. The Wight nomination was supported by Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Norway; Sen. Jill Goldthwait, I-Bar Harbor; Sen. Sharon Treat, D-Gardiner; plus a number of sportsmen.