Hearing on Millinocket-area ecotourism resort set

AUGUSTA – State regulators set March 28 as the date for public hearings on a proposed, $65 million ecotourism resort near Millinocket Lake.

Members of the Land Use Regulation Commission board voted Wednesday to authorize staff to hold the hearing and technical sessions on Matthew Polstein’s project, known as Ktaadn Resorts. The meetings will be held in the Millinocket area, potentially at the high school or the Baxter State Park headquarters.

Polstein, a Millinocket town councilor and prominent business owner, is seeking to rezone land in Township 1, Range 8 to build a resort lodge, a mixed-use subdivision and associated businesses along Millinocket Lake and Hammond Ridge.

The plan calls for 35 residential lots and 12 mixed-use town houses as well as an 80-room “adventure lodge,” a restaurant, an agricultural center and artisan living spaces, among other things, on 244 of Polstein’s 1,450 acres. Polstein has said he designed the project to blend into the surroundings to minimize impacts on the natural environment.

LURC director Catherine Carroll said the commission will likely hold technical sessions with Polstein and agency staff in the early afternoon on March 28. Those meetings are open to the public. The formal public hearing will be held in the evening.

LURC staff will keep the record open for several weeks after the meeting to accept additional comments. Staff will then draft a recommendation to the commission.

Polstein has said he expects his resort to create at least 100 full-time jobs and to spur about 60,000 visitor-days to the Katahdin region annually. If approved by the commission, the project will likely be built over five to eight years, Polstein has said.

Copies of the proposal, the commission’s review criteria and other information are at www.maine.gov/doc/lurc/projects/Hammondridge.html.