Land use bills won’t help Maine

The Moosehead Region Futures Committee would like to express our opposition to three bills recently proposed by Sen. Peter Mills: LD 471, LD 472 and LD 473. It is the consensus of our committee that these bills would undermine Land Use Regulation Commission’s ability to balance development and conservation and protect against the mixing of incompatible land uses in the Unorganized Territories. These bills do not support the best interests of the people of Maine.

Our views are as follows:

. LD 471: In 1971, the Legislature, intending to enable the creation of woodlots, passed a statutory exemption to allow the sale of 40-plus acre lots in the Unorganized Territories. However, LURC later realized that this exemption provided a loophole through which the woodlots were being used for unintended and scattered development in remote areas. In 2001, the Legislature closed this loophole. As intended, these lots are now zoned for forestry use only.

At the time the loophole was closed, LURC afforded landowners of these 40-plus acre woodlots a window of opportunity to submit certified plans in order to maintain the right to develop. If they failed to file such plans, then development rights were lost. If a landowner now regrets his failure to file, it is not the responsibility of the state of Maine to compensate him. If a landowner who failed to file sold a parcel of land falsely claiming it to be developable, the buyer does have a potential legal remedy through the courts. Once again, it is not the responsibility of the state of Maine to compensate him.

LD 471 could open thousands of these woodlots for development, thereby splintering the Maine woods into sprawling development patterns across remote, unserviced areas, removing land available for forestry and degrading the character of the region.

. LD 472: LURC, the planning board for Unorganized Territory, already offers a system of checks and balances that respects the interests of the people of Maine as well as the rights of private landowners. The LURC process is well-crafted, allowing ample opportunity for both public and private involvement, and it ensures protection of the high value of the waters, woodlands and wildlife of the Unorganized Territories. LD 472 would add a layer of unnecessary bureaucratic review, which would result in the slowing down of an effective process and would also diminish the input of land-use professionals.

. LD 473: Presently, LURC’s planning focuses on balancing development and conservation in order to protect the highest values of Maine’s Unorganized Territories for the benefit of all the citizens of Maine. LD 473 would divert this focus toward private development interests. The consequences of this shift would be devastating to the last unfragmented region of our state and to its forests, rivers, lakes, ponds and wildlife. We must remember that Maine’s citizens own the state’s waterways and wildlife and have public property rights that must be honored in the state’s land management decisions.

The Moosehead Region Futures Committee therefore hopes that the Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee will act in the best interests of Maine’s citizens by supporting LURC’s current management policies for the Unorganized Territories and voting “Ought Not to Pass” on LDs 471, 472 and 473.

Joan Wisher is a member of the steering committee of the Moosehead Region Futures Committee.