No other state has half its area ruled by seven unelected functionaries.

Keep your eye on the prize. The prize for the citizens of Maine’s unorganized territories is freedom and liberty. The prize for the environmental industry is rural cleansing and a national park of more than 3 million acres.

Last year, Rep. Jeff Gifford, R-Lincoln, submitted a simple bill to abolish the Land Use Regulation Commission. It is time.

No other state has half its area ruled by seven unelected functionaries. It is patently unconstitutional. It has been more than four decades since LURC was created by one vote. It is time to simply abolish it.

Unfortunately, leaders in the Legislature did the same thing they did with the forestry COMPACT. They sent it out for study by a commission.

On Jan. 10, the LURC Reform Commission presented its recommendation to the Agriculture and Forestry Committee in Augusta. The result was astoundingly arrogant.

As proposed, the new “jurisdiction-wide” LURC would be bigger, stronger and meaner. The size of the commission would increase from seven to nine, but every position could still be appointed. Residents of the unorganized territories would not be allowed to nominate or elect these people.

Commissioner William Beardsley, in his guest column (Sun Journal, Jan. 24), mentions King George and 1776. I teach about the events of April 19, 1775, when the patriots of old sent the Redcoats back to Boston, empty-handed. The Redcoats were never able to leave Boston by land again.

In his report back to London about that day, Lord Percy wrote: “They are wise in the ways of the woods and have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as Rangers against the Indians and Canadians, and this country being much covered with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting.”

The “commission” misunderstands the burning desire for freedom in northern Maine. Its report is a direct assault on any red-blooded American with a love of liberty.

Mr. Beardsley declares for all to see that “we strived to preserve the core principle of the LURC tradition: the statewide jurisdiction and board.”

There it is, distilled down to its very core. The tradition of liberty in Maine has, indeed, been forgotten.

A careful analysis of the commission’s recommended bill reveals a LURC that would be bigger, stronger and meaner than the one that just celebrated its 40th anniversary. It is a huge affront to northern Maine.

Nowhere in this document are the words liberty, freedom, self-determination, economic development or home rule. These fundamental principles of our nation must be foreign to the authors of the document.

The document declares that LURC would train and control a bigger staff. It follows that they would spend more money. All nine “designees” could be appointed. The people governed would still not be able to vote for those who govern them. They want to “discourage the intermixing of incompatible activities.”

Incompatible? In whose opinion? Why should these people be able to tell a business owner that he can’t live beside his business?

After three years, counties could beg the state to recover some of the freedoms that organized towns enjoy today but, under the proposal, large towns near LURC territories would control what citizens outside those towns could do on their land.

Even if counties recover some freedom, those citizens they elect to serve on planning boards would have to be approved by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

What arrogance.

Citizens outside LURC territories elect board members and even legislators without DEP approval, yet the document requires that the DEP determine who and how citizens elected to planning boards have “demonstrated capacity” to serve.

We elect legislators without DEP approval; we can elect county planning boards without DEP approval.

The document demands that all existing permits and concept plans remain. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan would survive.

A few years ago, former Rep. Henry Joy, R-Crystal, brought the first copy of the CLUP to a meeting in an unorganized territory. Somebody took it outside, fired a few rounds through it and Joy took it back to Augusta with the appropriate sentiments there for all to see.

The document slipped right through the Agriculture and Forestry Committee and was sent up to be engrossed. When it comes back it should be amended to adopt the original goal, which was to abolish LURC. It could be done by June 30.

There are highly talented and professional citizens in the 52 percent of Maine now ruled by LURC. They are just as able as the citizens serving on boards down there in lower Maine. They do not need DEP approval to serve.

If any portion of the recommended document is passed by the Legislature, it is the prayer of the citizens of northern Maine that Gov. Paul LePage keep his promise to abolish LURC and veto such a bill.

Roger Ek was first elected to a planning board in 1974 and has served on many boards related to rural Maine. He lives in Lee.