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Hearing set on lodges

FARMINGTON – Maine Land Use Regulation commissioners will hold a public hearing Thursday on Western Mountains Foundation’s request for development permits for two lodges in Somerset County.

One of the proposed so-called huts would be constructed on Flagstaff Lake in Carrying Place Township and the other one is on the Dead River in Spring Lake Township. The lodges, two of up to 12 planned, are intended to serve Western Mountains Foundation’s proposed 180-mile recreation corridor from Bethel to Moosehead Lake. The huts are designed to accommodate up to 40 guests. The group plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, for the first lodge being built near Poplar Stream Falls in Carrabassett Valley.

The hearing on the hut permits is scheduled to run from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday for applicant and intervener testimony, cross examination and rebuttal, with public testimony beginning at 6 p.m. at Lincoln Auditorium at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Land use group will review possible regulation changes

FARMINGTON – State land use regulators will meet Thursday to review a draft regulation covering development in the 10 million acres of unorganized territory in Maine that the Land Use Regulation Commission oversees.

Commissioners have scheduled a four-hour review of Chapter 4 to run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at Lincoln Auditorium at the University of Maine at Farmington campus.

The chapter is one of several in the comprehensive plan adopted in 1997 by the state Legislature that is undergoing review for possible revisions.

LURC staff outlines some areas that they say the commission needs to consider action on, including one that deals with sprawl in the north woods.

During the meeting on Chapter 4, LURC staff plans to discuss an analysis of development trends over the past 35 years that show existing LURC rules are inadequate to prevent dispersing development.

“In the face of this inadequacy, recent ownership changes increase the risk of significant changes in the qualities that have characterized this unique part of the state for so long,” the summary of the draft chapter states.

While the commission believes that development can be accommodated without undermining principal values if it is located appropriately, the regulatory framework does not effectively guide development to appropriate areas and away from inappropriate areas.

A major issue, LURC Planning Division Manager Fred Todd said Monday, is that residential development is dispersing in a manner that is not sustainable if the principal values of the commission’s jurisdiction are to be maintained.

While 44 percent of new dwellings over the past 35 years were concentrated in 21 minor civil divisions such as a township or plantation, 56 percent of new dwellings were dispersed across 307 minor civil divisions, the summary page states.

Commissioners will be asked to reconsider some of the exemptions granted in the last plan by the board and Legislature.

One exemption that needs to be addressed is the so-called two and five exemption, Todd said.

Under the current law, if you create two lots in five years you don’t need to go before LURC for approval, he said, but if you create three lots in five years you do.

Analysis data shows that at least 72 percent of the new dwellings permitted by the commission since 1971 have occurred on lots that were not reviewed through the commission’s rezoning and subdivision review processes, Todd said.

They occurred on lots that either existed prior to the creation of the commission or were created through exemptions to subdivision review, he said.

Consequently, the lots were not subject to the commission’s policies regarding areas appropriate for development, Todd said.

“Therefore there is a huge potential of sprawl in northwoods,” he said.

The commission needs to address it now before it becomes more of a problem than it is, he said.

There were 2,469 subdivision lots that went through the LURC regulation process between 1971 and 2005, Todd said, but 8,847 permits issued in the same time for new dwellings that were outside of the subdivision process.

Location decisions are being driven by landowner intent rather than public policy oversight, Todd said.

“One way to fix it would be to tighten up on exemptions,” he said.

The tentative plan is to bring a complete draft of the revised comprehensive plan to the commission on Oct. 10, with staff asking to release the draft for public workshops in late November. A formal public hearing on the proposal would be held at later.