AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Legislation that sought to abolish Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission has been bypassed in favor of a longer study into the future of the agency, which oversees development in the state’s nearly 10-million acre Unorganized Territory.

Gov. Paul LePage on Friday signed into law a bill that sets forth an agenda for study into the issue, which was debated at length in committee during the past session after bills were presented to abolish LURC. Lawmakers finally killed those bills and passed one that establishes the Commission on Reform of the Governance of Land Use Planning in the Unorganized Territory.

The commission must issue a final report by Jan. 4, and the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry must submit a bill during the 2012 session.