SANDY RIVER PLANTATION – The Land Use Regulation Commission held a public hearing Tuesday to examine a permit application and zoning petition by the Rangeley Cross Country Ski Club and Saddleback Land & Timber Corp.
Ski club member Jeff Foltz presented the club’s petition to LURC members and the approximately 30 people attending the meeting. He explained that the club has been looking for a new home for a number of years, since learning that much of the land its trails are currently on has been slated for development or sold to other parties. He said the Saddleback Corp. agreed to lease a portion of its land to the Rangeley ski club in order to build new trails and a lodge. Foltz explained that before building can begin, the approximately five acres the club plans to build on will need to be rezoned as a planned development subdistrict.
In the club’s application, Foltz said, the club “established that there is regulation covering what we want to do, and there’s actually regulation in more than one document that covers what we need to do.”
Commission member Marcia Spencer Famous said she thought the ski club’s presentation “worked well.” According to commission member Bart Harvey, LURC will not make a final decision regarding the application until “December at the earliest.”
Much of the 75-kilometer trail system planned for the club’s new Saddleback location was built this summer.
The club is in the process of raising funds to pay for its planned 5,000- to 6,000-foot lodge. “We’re begging,” said club member Linda Dexter. The club has raised about $190,000 and “we need to raise four to five times that” to begin building, she said.
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