GREENVILLE – Greenville officials see both benefits and drawbacks to Plum Creek Timber Co.’s proposed plan to develop and conserve the land it owns in the Unorganized Territory.

Since so much is at stake for this gateway community, town officials have asked the Land Use Regulation Commission to hold its hearings on the proposal in the Moosehead Lake region.

“The people who don’t live here, work here or own property here don’t have the same stake in the future of the region as we do,” Greenville Town Manager John Simko said Saturday.

Simko said Augusta or Portland residents would not like it if Greenville demanded that a public hearing on a proposed project in those communities be held in Greenville.

Plum Creek has asked LURC, which serves as the planning and appeals boards for the Unorganized Territory, to rezone 20,000 acres of land it owns to create, over time, 975 house lots in selected locations near Moosehead Lake. It also has proposed to set aside land for the private development of a resort in Lily Bay and another resort at Squaw Mountain.

The plan also proposes to conserve more than 400,000 acres and allow the public the traditional use of the land.

“The people that are in the Greenville area would feel the effects more than those in the southern area [of the state],” Selectman Alan McBrierty said Saturday. “It does make sense [to hold the hearings in Greenville] where everything in the plan is pretty much northeast and northwest of Greenville.” It would give more local residents an opportunity to participate, he said.

In a letter to LURC, town officials have outlined what they perceive to be the negatives and the positives of the proposal.

Even before Plum Creek’s plan was hatched, Greenville had its issues with traffic and the problems would only be exacerbated by development, according to Simko. Regardless of whether or not the plan is approved, the traffic issues need to be addressed, he said.

Since solid waste disposal is “pay-as-you-go” and fire protection is on a cost-share basis, there would be limited impact on those services, Simko noted.

Greenville would seek to get some relief for its service center status. Property taxpayers pay a higher tax rate than the surrounding Unorganized Territory because of the displacement of about $35 million in tax exempt property, Simko said. Yet, the services these agencies such as the Maine Warden Service and the local hospital offer also are used by residents and visitors to the Unorganized Territory.

In addition, some relief would be sought to help with such infrastructure needs as the Junction Wharf and municipal airport used widely by those in the region.

Advantages of the plan include the potential for job creation and an economic dividend for local businesses, especially if the resort owners would tie their business into the community and do not duplicate services offered in the region, Simko said.

Other positives of the plan include an opportunity to limit the fracture of the forestland, protecting it, yet ensuring that a fiber supply would be available for the wood products industry. The opportunity for more than 100 miles of permanent snowmobile and hiking trails on the land is also very appealing.

“The ability to maintain harvestable wood baskets, to prevent fragmentation of this land base and to continue to allow recreational uses of the land base are all very beneficial to the future of this region and Greenville,” Simko said.