Opponents tussle at Plum Creek hearings

AUGUSTA – Critics of Plum Creek’s proposal for the Moosehead Lake region targeted the company’s plans to develop areas near Lily Bay and Brassua Lake on Wednesday as state regulators plodded through their third day of hearings.

Plum Creek officials were on a defensive footing for much of the morning as they reiterated their argument that the Moosehead region would benefit from the planned growth and large-scale conservation included in their plan.

But tensions rose as the two sides tussled over opponents’ contention that much of the proposed development is located too far from the communities of Greenville, Rockwood and Jackman.

Members of the Land Use Regulation Commission, meanwhile, struggled to keep the hearing on schedule – and on topic.

“A lot of the stuff we have heard today hasn’t been particularly helpful, I’m sorry to say,” LURC chairman Bart Harvey said at one point after a drawn-out bout of legal maneuvering by lawyers on both sides.

Seattle-based Plum Creek is seeking LURC approval of a development concept plan that proposes the creation of 975 house lots and construction of two resorts over time. The company has also pledged to permanently protect roughly 430,000 acres in the region through conservation easements and land sales to conservation groups, but only if the development plan is approved.

Representatives of several groups critical of the plan focused heavily Wednesday on proposals for more than 150 housing lots and a 700-plus acre resort on Lily Bay and 250 house lots about nine driving miles west of Rockwood Village.

Opponents want fewer lots overall and more of the development located on land that Plum Creek owns within the boundaries of Greenville. Plum Creek has reduced the number of waterfront lots from 575 to 300 since first unveiling its plan in April 2005, but the total number of house lots has held steady at 975.

Luke Muzzy, the company’s local point man and the principal architect of the plan, said the company is likely amenable to suggestions on ways to minimize impacts on the environment. But the company needs some guarantees, especially considering it is selling its development rights on 400,000-plus acres.

“I think one of my strengths is seeing the big picture,” Muzzy said. “I sincerely tried to put a landscape-scale plan together that the company would buy into but that would work for the region.”

But opponents criticized the company for seeking approval of zoning plans that would potentially allow a golf course at the Lily Bay resort as well as stores, offices and other commercial buildings on Brassua Lake.

Jym St. Pierre, Maine director for RESTORE: The North Woods and a former LURC staffer, said the commission was created in large part because of concern about sprawl around Moosehead. Now, St. Pierre said, Plum Creek is seeking exceptions to LURC standards for its plan.

“I feel like we are going back 40 years,” St. Pierre said. “We’re talking about planned sprawl here again.”

The tensest moments of the day came when Jim Glavine, president of the group Moosehead Region Futures Committee, pressed Muzzy on the location of some development.

Obviously exacerbated from being on the hot seat for much of the morning, Muzzy declared that he loved his native region and was working to help it. When Glavine said he did not intend to elicit such an emotional response, Muzzy retorted, “You know just what you’re doing.”

Muzzy apologized soon thereafter and the men continued with the cross-examination.

Muzzy was backed during afternoon sessions by representatives of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, the Somerset Economic Development Corp. and the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, all of whom touted the plan. The additional housing and permanent conservation would help the region economically, the representatives said.

“I believe it is going to be a significant benefit to the people of the state …,” said Peter Vigue, president and CEO of Cianbro Corp., who was representing SEDC.