SCHOODIC DISCOVERED

The Schoodic peninsula east of Mount Desert Island is the part of Acadia National Park typically overlooked by visitors. A proposal to develop seasonal and year-round housing, a lodge and a golf course on a 3,300-acre parcel that abuts the park there could mean the end of its status as an area for “quiet discovery,” as the park describes it. The proposal understandably raises many questions and concerns, some of which may be addressed at a public meeting in Winter Harbor tonight.

The property’s consortium of owners is approaching the proposal in a way not typically seen in Maine. Rather than announce its intention to build so many houses on so many acres, the consortium, represented by Augusta lawyer Mike Saxl and Bangor landscape architect Steve Ribble, is talking in conceptual terms. They also have taken the unprecedented step of meeting with stakeholder groups, including those who would most likely oppose the project, before developing hard and fast terms for the development. This approach is refreshing and seems genuine in seeking input. The public meeting tonight will be the first opportunity for residents of Winter Harbor and Gouldsboro to offer.

But the lack of details – chief among them the actual number of residences proposed – also creates a sense of mystery about the project that could lead to fear and suspicion. The developers would be wise to disclose some estimates about the scale of the project.

It’s being called an “ecological community,” whose marketing efforts would be targeted at wealthy couples and families who value the proximity to the natural world that such living would afford. The housing would be clustered, screened from roads, and would include some units reserved for “workforce” buyers. The golf course would not use pesticides, and perhaps look nothing like the perpetually green expanses of grass found on most courses, and instead make use of native flora.

The owners, Mr. Saxl and Mr. Ribble say, are passionate about including environmental education centers as major components of the eco community, where vernal pools, birds, mammal movements and native plants would be studied.

And the concept map shows a green corridor running north and south through the parcel in which old logging roads would be developed into trails similar to Acadia’s carriage trails, appropriate for hiking and bicycling, and accessible to the public. The corridor makes up two-thirds of the property, a generous set-aside for both wildlife and the public.

If the ambitious development proposal fails to clear regulatory or marketing thresholds, the private parcel easily could be sold piecemeal for trophy houses and commercial activities. The eco community is preferable to that alternative. But some skepticism seems appropriate: Are the research centers merely “green washing” or are they integral to the concept?

Mr. Saxl and Mr. Ribble note that when the area naval facility closed, some 500 people left Winter Harbor. An influx of new residents would not be unprecedented and would certainly revive economic activity in the nearby villages.

The project’s vision statement asserts that its goal is to “bind together the region’s ecology, economy and culture forming a positive union to ensure the preservation and enhancement of habitat, provide employment opportunities to sustain the local economy, and establish a destination for environmental research and education.” The surrounding community should hold the developers to that standard.