FARMINGTON – Growth in unorganized townships in Franklin and Oxford counties are keeping state land use regulators busy.
The two neighboring counties in Western Maine comprise one-third of the Land Use Regulation Commission’s workload, Director Catherine Carroll told Franklin County commissioners last week.
The commission’s job is to provide orderly development in the state’s nearly 10.5 million acres of unorganized territory, she said.
“Franklin and Oxford counties are generating a lot of work for us,” Carroll said.
“We’re up to our eyeballs in” development requests for subdivisions, residential homes and commercial projects, she said.
“I don’t see it slowing down,” she said. “We cannot keep up,” she said. “Franklin County keeps us extremely busy. Out of any other places in the jurisdiction, this county keeps us the busiest.”
The commission oversees development in Franklin County’s 24 townships or plantations and at least 15 townships and plantations in Oxford County.
Carroll said the seven-member commission is interested in knowing what sort of impact and burden the commission creates when it approves development in these townships that fall under county government for services such as solid waste, fire protection, policing and emergency medical response.
Carroll invited county commissioners to stop in to discuss matters with Land Use Regulation Commission on Oct. 5 in Rangeley.
County commissioners are routinely informed about development in Franklin County and review proposals the state commission is considering.
Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon said he thinks the demand for development is constituted by second homes. Both Franklin and Oxford counties are closest to population as far as people “wanting to get out back so to speak,” he said.
“We certainly have something here that money can’t buy,” Hardy said.
The homes being built in the townships and plantations are no longer three-seasonal camps powered by generators but houses that could be lived in year-round if owners wanted to.
“These homes are not camps anymore, they’re mansions,” Carroll said.
Unorganized Territory Fiscal Administrator Doreen Sheive said there is some concern that the seasonal homes could become year-round and people would want more services.
At what point does development in a region become too much? Sheive asked.
She also questioned how long towns such as Rangeley, Kingfield and Eustis would have the capacity to handle services such as solid waste and fire protection to unorganized townships.
Carroll said the Land Use Regulation Commission and county commissioners need to be become more connected to discuss these matters.
Franklin County already has the highest number of schoolchildren in its unorganized territory than any other county.
SAD 58 in Franklin County is the largest receiver of unorganized territory schoolchildren followed by Bethel school system in Oxford County, unorganized territory school Superintendent Richard Moreau told commissioners.
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