SANDY RIVER PLANTATION – Saddleback Mountain owners plan to invest $120 million, maybe more, in the resort over the next decade.

But first, their petition to rezone nearly 1,898 acres in Sandy River and Dallas plantations needs to be approved by the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission.

Saddleback Land & Timber Corp., the land owners, and Saddleback Inc., the owners and developers of the resort, both entities of the Archie “Bill” Berry Jr. family, filed the initial petition with the state June 30, 2006. They have since submitted more information to make it a more complete application, said Marcia Spencer-Famous, a senior staff planner for the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission. The proposal will undergo a formal review from staff and state agencies and a public hearing, she said.

All the state’s mountains under LURC’s supervision are in protected mountain zones and there are a lot of activities that are allowed in those zones, Spencer-Famous said.

The petition requests that the land be rezoned from its current subdistrict designations that include general management, Great Pond protection and mountain area protection to planned development.

Petitioners also want to amend a 10-year plan that was initially approved with conditions when Donald Breen owned the ski area, said John Cannizzaro, director of planning, development and real estate for Saddleback Inc. Breen submitted the plan in 1987, and it was approved with conditions in 1990 and amended in 1993, he said.

None of the development in that plan was done by Breen, he said, and Saddleback’s new owners, who bought the property in 2003 from Breen for more than $8 million, have been able to choose some of those projects and develop their own plans to expand the facility and mountain area to make it a four-season resort, Cannizzaro said.

They have already been allowed to redo the resort, add a septic system and increase snowmaking and build 54 condominiums and 18 timeshare condominiums, he said.

They now need to enlarge the planned development district, amend the plan and get approval for Phase 1 of the project, which would cover the first two years, with some projects lasting beyond that to complete.

Expectations are to do the plan in four phases over the 10 years, he said, which will include 51 projects.

Among the projects planned are construction of 24 one- and two-bedroom condominiums just below the base lodge and 78 time-share condominiums over next four or five years below the lodge near the South Branch ski lift, Cannizzaro said.

“All the units are ski in, ski out,” he said.

They also want to add more trails, he said.

Currently, there are 60 trails and glades, a trail where you can ski through the woods on the 8,000-plus acres that encompass the resort. Snowmaking would be expanded as the trails are built, he said. Trails would also be maintained for hiking and mountain biking.

“The idea is to have a complete four-season resort,” Cannizzaro said.

Additional plans including those more conceptual in nature, he said, are to build a snow-tubing park; an inn that would initially have 40 rooms expandable to 60 rooms, a pool, a restaurant and a mini-conference room; a hotel with between 75 and 100 rooms; a recreation vehicle park; two additional ski lodges; nine ski lifts; an amenity center; a skating pavilion; and tennis courts.

“Hopefully, this will be a project the public will get behind,” Cannizzaro said.