DOVER-FOXCROFT – Piscataquis County commissioners agreed Tuesday that both the conservation and development plans proposed by Plum Creek Timber Co. for the Moosehead Lake region should be open for discussion at a public hearing to be scheduled by the Land Use Regulation Commission.

“It’s kind of hard to look at the whole picture without seeing the linkage between the concept plan and the conservation lands,” Commissioner Tom Lizotte said Tuesday.

Plum Creek has asked LURC, which serves as the planning board for the Unorganized Territory, to rezone its land so it can develop 975 house lots over time. The company also has proposed to reserve land for the private development of a large resort on Big Moose Mountain and a smaller resort on Lily Bay.

To offset the development, the company has offered permanently to conserve more than 400,000 acres, some of which will be donated and some of which will be sold to conservation organizations.

It is the latter carrot that The Natural Resource Council of Maine and Maine Audubon Society feel should not be part of the discussion during the public hearing.

The two organizations have asked LURC to deem the conservation framework legally irrelevant to the concept plan and have asked that evidence relating to the proposed Legacy Easement be ruled inadmissible at the public hearing.

Invited by LURC to comment, the commissioners agreed Tuesday that the request does not have their support, nor does it have the support of Greenville Town Manager John Simko, who was in the audience at Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s [the conservation plan] a valuable piece of the puzzle,” Simko said.

Commissioner Eric Ward agreed with Simko. “As long as it’s an open process I think it all has to be talked about.”

In a related vote, the commissioners supported a working draft of potential issues and criteria crafted by LURC staff and consultants regarding the proposed development and conservation plan. The issues identified were broad in scope and ranged from the proposed location of development to the need for economic development and growth in the area.

A list of more specific questions involving such issues as road maintenance, solid waste, fire protection services and septic waste disposal will be compiled by commissioners at a later date.

LURC had asked the commissioners and other interested parties to comment on the draft to ensure that all relevant types of issues were identified before the public hearing began.