AUGUSTA – Plum Creek officials are reviewing the plethora of issues raised in August by the public during four “issues scoping sessions” as the company prepares a revised concept plan for the development and conservation of property it owns in the Moosehead Lake region.

The scoping sessions held throughout the state gave the public an opportunity to present issues that the Land Use Regulation Commission, the governing regulatory agency for the unorganized territory, should consider in its review when it receives a completed application from the Seattle-based company.

In April, Plum Creek petitioned LURC to rezone 426,000 acres in the unorganized territory in order to implement a concept plan that includes development of about 1,000 house lots, two resorts, three recreational vehicle parks, a golf course and a marina. To mitigate the project, the company has proposed to leave nearly 400,000 acres in the region undeveloped for 30 years.

Since Plum Creek’s initial application had deficiencies identified by LURC, the company now is working to revise the plan and at the same time address issues raised during the scoping sessions, according to company officials. A revised document is expected to be presented to LURC by year’s end.

“We’re really looking at that data now; we’re taking a close look at it now, and we’ll do what we can to address those issues in the reapplication that we submit,” Jim Lehner, Plum Creek’s Northeast regional manager, said Friday. Lehner said the company was attempting to find common themes among the issues raised during the sessions.

“We’re shooting for this year, but you know, it’s a lot of work to try to redo and address those things and make some changes that are meaningful,” Lehner said of the resubmission of the application.

Among changes under consideration is moving the proposed development closer to an organized community, he said.

The strong interest shown throughout the state in the proposed project prompted LURC to hold the sessions, which about 1,000 people attended. Of those, about 150 raised issues they thought should be considered by LURC during its review process. Hundreds of written comments also have been received by the agency, according to Catherine Carroll, LURC director.

“The comments received by the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission’s staff during the four scoping sessions last summer have been invaluable to LURC,” Carroll said this week. “These comments have given us a better understanding of the public’s concerns regarding our review of the Moosehead Lake area concept plan.

“We are grateful for the input we received and will use the information in the best possible way as it pertains to the commission’s lake concept plan review criteria.”

Issues raised by the public over the past few months and summarized by LURC focused on development, conservation, natural resources, economics, infrastructure, public services, character and traditional use.

“I think the scoping sessions were very good for all of us, for the state, for the landowner, and for the communities, opponents and proponents,” Patrick McGowan, Department of Conservation commissioner, said Friday. “A lot of the scoping session was about how can we make this better; it wasn’t we’re just flat-out against this or we’re flat-out for it.”

McGowan said that once LURC receives the complete application, his involvement is to make sure that the agency has the tools it needs.

“LURC is an agency of 23 people, and they have 10 million acres of unorganized territory, they have half the state of Maine to watch over, so we need to make sure they have what they need,” the commissioner said.

He noted that at the same time LURC is processing approximately 1,200 regular applications it receives from the unorganized territory each year, the staff also is looking at several other projects in addition to Plum Creek’s which are large in scale, such as projects involving wind power.

Carroll of LURC said that until Plum Creek submits a complete plan, her agency will follow up with individuals and groups that expressed interest in Plum Creek’s plan and with governmental agencies to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the issues at hand.

A summary of issues raised during the public scoping sessions may be viewed at http://www.maine.gov/doc/lurc/reference/resourceplans/ moosehead.html