AUGUSTA – Recommendations from a state growth management task force, while well-intentioned, are misguided, members of the group were told repeatedly Wednesday at a public hearing.

Provisions requiring towns to develop comprehensive plans or risk losing small amounts of state aid will have the unintended consequence of causing more sprawl, representatives of real estate agents, developers and the Maine State Housing Authority told the Task Force to Study Growth Management.

They reasoned that conscientious towns will develop plans and put caps on growth, but many outlying communities, where uncontrolled growth is already a problem, are less likely to take action or to care that they will lose access to state growth management or Land For Maine’s Future funds.

Instead, regional approaches to controlling growth should be implemented, the speakers said. Otherwise, developers will “judge shop” to find areas where new houses and businesses are most welcome, said Linda Gifford of the Maine Association of Realtors.

“Local control is not a good approach to this issue,” she said.

While praising the task force’s efforts, Gifford said it was unrealistic to expect a committee to solve in just two months a problem that has been 100 years in the making.

She and others suggested that a more permanent legislative committee be established to seek ways to develop “smart-growth” laws. Such a committee should include members of legislative committees on education, transportation and local government so that comprehensive solutions, such as encouraging schools to be built close to downtown areas, may result.

Tim Glidden, deputy director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and a member of the task force, admitted Wednesday that the group might have to settle for modest gains. That might include an agreement that a regional approach is necessary, and that a standing committee be established to look into the issue further. The committee is scheduled to meet one more time next month before wrapping up its work.

Members of the Maine Municipal Association also met Wednesday to discuss the task force’s recommendations. The municipal officials voted to have MMA officials continue to work with the task force because they feel the group is moving in the right direction, although specific details of any proposed legislation need to be further refined, said Geoff Herman, director of state and federal relations for MMA.

The state’s current growth management efforts, which include nullifying municipal land use ordinances if a comprehensive plan is not acceptable to state officials, are “wrong-headed,” Herman said. A change to a system that requires specified outcomes would be a step in the right direction, he said.

However, municipal officials did express concerns that larger tax issues, which were not addressed by the task force, are driving sprawl. For example, people tend to move to outlying areas with lower tax rates. In addition, many municipalities rely on property taxes as their largest source of revenue. This means that these communities may view any type of growth as good because it means more tax dollars.

The task force, which was appointed by the Legislature, had prepared draft recommendations for the hearing Wednesday. The recommendations include the creation of statewide standards calling for 70 percent of future residential development to be in designated growth areas, and limits on commercial development to areas where speed limits would not have to be dropped on major roads.

If communities didn’t meet those standards, they would lose access to growth-related financial assistance from the state and money from the Land for Maine’s Future board, the task force recommended.

Help, not meager penalties, is what’s needed, critics testified.

The penalties are not severe enough and the group’s recommendations are weak, said Nigel Calder, a member of the newly formed MidCoast Alliance for Planning, a group of concerned individuals from communities from Belfast to Brunswick.

“This document is not nearly courageous enough,” said Calder, who lives in the small town of Alna.

He said the state should do more to help communities like his plan for future growth.

Six new houses are now being built in the Augusta bedroom community. That’s more houses than have been built there in the past 10 years, he said.

Alna has no municipal water or sewer system, no town center and no professional planners. Residents a decade ago rejected a comprehensive plan. To require a town like Alna to have a designated growth area is meaningless because no one in town would know where such an area should be, he said.

Calder said if the state mandates municipal comprehensive plans it should provide the blueprint as it did with shore land zoning ordinances, which are very specific.

“In another 10 to 15 years, we’ll be losing the fight if we don’t get the help we need,” Calder told the group.

Dave Pierson of Dexter said the state was right to try to put pressure on towns to develop growth management policies.

“I think it is right for the state to turn its back on towns that have not done a comprehensive plan, just like a bank would refuse to give money to someone who has not done a business plan,” said Pierson, who used to work as a code enforcement officer.