BANGOR – The controversial proposal to create an official John’s Bridge canoe launch on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is finally moving forward in a new form with the support of the waterway’s advisory commission and the National Park Service.

A permit application for construction of a 10-vehicle parking area and a 770-foot “primitive” trail will be filed with Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission immediately, said Tom Morrison, director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands.

Gov. Angus King has long said he intends to see such a project approved before he leaves office in January.

The $20,000 proposal includes a 40-foot by 120-foot parking area and an outhouse, both of which would be located on land leased from Seven Islands Land Co.

After unloading their vehicles at the new parking lot, boaters would be required to carry their canoes down the 6-foot-wide dirt trail to the water. A bend in the trail and a bank of trees would make the facility undetectable from the river.

Any further development – even hardening of the trail – would constitute a “facility” and trigger requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act that would greatly increase the project’s scope and cost, Morrison said.

A road leading from the main logging road to the parking lot would be gated, and access would be available only during the spring and fall, peak times for the fishermen and hunters who have been the launches’ chief proponents. The road would be closed in the summer to reduce conflicts between day users and long-distance canoeists.

After four years, the state would review impacts of the new access point and revisit its decision.

The new canoe launch at John’s Bridge, which is located between Eagle and Churchill Lakes, was originally proposed in 1999 as part of a general management plan for the waterway. Opposition by those concerned with the wilderness nature of the river was immediate and powerful.

Through the years, the canoe launch has become symbolic of a larger debate between sportsmen and environmentalists over how much access is appropriate on the wild and scenic river.

At times, it seemed the project would never be built. Then last spring, the state signed a memorandum of agreement with the National Park Service that approved the new canoe launch, as long as major construction was done outside a 500-foot restricted zone along the riverbank.

The same agreement required a broad review of all the waterway’s access points.

In May, the governor proposed a compromise, which would tie the canoe launch to the larger access debate in an attempt to satisfy the project’s detractors. Members of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Commission would debate the issue before the canoe launch was built.

Commission members Wednesday reported on the outcome of this debate, which was held during a recent four-day retreat.

Though some details of the proposal drew broad support from advisers, the commission could not reach a consensus on the canoe launch proposal.

Board member Linda Koski, a guide from Greenville, Wednesday criticized the process, saying that debate over access issues had been rushed in order to meet King’s self-imposed deadline.

In a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon, Cathy Johnson, a member of the advisory council and a spokesperson for the Natural Resources Council of Maine – one of the proposal’s most vocal critics – expressed similar disappointment.

“It doesn’t make much sense, to me, to move forward piecemeal,” she said. “The management plan review process is now only partially completed and there is not yet been any opportunity for input from the public. The state’s plan to move forward with a new access point at this time is premature and threatens the credibility of the entire management plan review process.”