MILLINOCKET – With its estimated $65 million price tag, Matthew Polstein’s proposed lodge and ecotourism facility represents one of the largest resort applications ever submitted to the Land Use Regulation Committee.

Yet Ktaadn Resorts, as Polstein’s Millinocket Lake resort is currently known, has generated little controversy compared to other major development applications submitted to LURC.

To date, it has escaped virtually all of the backlash from conservation groups that Plum Creek Timber Co. has experienced with its much larger development proposal for two resorts and nearly 1,000 house lots near Moosehead Lake.

The disparity was perhaps most evident Wednesday night by the fact that none of Maine’s major environmental organizations spoke against Polstein’s proposal.

Representatives from two groups often in the thick of any fight over development in the Katahdin and Moosehead regions – the Natural Resources Council of Maine and RESTORE: The North Woods – praised aspects of Polstein’s proposal without endorsing the overall plan.

Cathy Johnson, North Woods policy director for NRCM, said her group will likely weigh in on the specific development plan. But Johnson said her organization believes that the Millinocket area has considerable potential to tap into the growing ecotourism market.

“Generally we think the idea of a nature-based resort in the Millinocket area makes sense,” Johnson said.

Ken Spalding with RESTORE praised Polstein for soliciting feedback from local residents, businesses and environmental groups before submitting his plan to LURC. While his group still has concerns, Spalding said RESTORE prefers resorts to “sprawling homes.”

“It has more of a positive economic impact and is less destructive to the character of the jurisdiction,” Spalding said in an interview.

Johnson and Spalding also praised Polstein’s vision of a resort that blends into the natural environment with minimal impact on views from Millinocket Lake.

Brian Wiley, president of the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has shifted its focus in recent years away from manufacturing and toward tourism. Addressing the LURC commissioners as one of the intervening parties, Wiley predicted that Ktaadn Resorts will become a “catalyst” for economic development in the region.

“Once complete, we cannot begin to imagine the impact the project will have on the area’s economy,” Wiley said.

Polstein bought the roughly 1,400-acre property on the shores of Millinocket Lake from Katahdin Timberlands in 2004 and immediately began planning.

During comments to the LURC board, Polstein said many of the customers who come to New England Outdoor Center for wildlife watching and other activities end up lodging in the Bangor or Bar Harbor areas because they want higher-end accommodations.

His resort would provide those tourists with another option to stay in the Millinocket area, thereby helping support the local economy.

Marcia McKeague, president of Katahdin Timberlands LLC, said her company purposely kept the Hammond Ridge property out of a 240,000-acre conservation deal negotiated with The Nature Conservancy.

There are no other sites in the immediate area that offer so much potential for recreational development. Polstein was an ideal buyer of the property, she said.

“Here was a local person that we had a track record with,” she said.

Speaking during a break in Thursday’s hearing, Polstein said he recognizes that his proposal has its risks. Many modern resorts are linked to golf courses or ski slopes. But he said economic data show that more people are looking for nature-based resorts that offer more than golf or skiing.

Asked whether his resort could set a precedent for future projects in the North Woods, Polstein responded: “I think there will be a lot of people who will wait to see if this thing works.”