It is encouraging that Plum Creek Timber Co. is listening to criticism of its plan for more than 400,000 acres around Moosehead Lake. One test of whether the company is serious about revising its plans to ensure they better conform to local values and state guidelines is whether the development is moved closer to existing towns and is less spread out through the woods.

The Seattle-based company has applied to the Land Use Regulation Commission to rezone about 10,000 acres to allow for two resorts, 975 house lots and three campgrounds. Another portion of the plan would provide for an industrial park and affordable housing in Greenville. Another 400,000 acres owned by the company around Moosehead Lake would remain in timber production for at least 30 years. At this point, Plum Creek is only proposing to rezone the land. Further applications and permits would be needed to build any of the proposed structures.

At three public sessions LURC held to gather public comment on the plan, a recurring theme was that the proposed development was too spread out and too far from towns that might get an economic boost from the resorts and new camps. The proposed development stretches from lots on the Roach ponds east of Moosehead Lake to Long Pond near Jackman.

LURC, in its Comprehensive Land Use Plan, makes it clear that its aim in managing the state’s 10 million acres of Unorganized Territories is to allow development only near where it already exists. Plum Creek officials say they meet LURC’s adjacency requirements. They may meet the letter of the law, which is vague and does not put a quantifiable distance on “adjacent,” but they did not meet the spirit of the rules.

Two core principles for land use in the Unorganized Territories is “discouraging growth which results in sprawling development patterns” and “encouraging orderly growth within and proximate to existing compatible developed areas, particularly towns and communities,” according to the land use plan.

It is hard to see how building 190 new house lots in an area where only 36 have been built in the last 10 years fits these criteria. House lots that are nearly 20 miles from the nearest town certainly don’t meet the proximity requirement.

Plum Creek is to be commended for offering a vision for tourism and economic development in the Moosehead Lake region in the absence of a state plan. Their vision, however, is only one of many possible scenarios.

Plum Creek said from the beginning that it expected revisions to its plan. The test now is how large those changes are. Moving hundreds of house lots closer to Greenville and Rockwood would be a good start. Moving a handful or minimally scaling back other developments would not.