Debate Pro, Con Heard at Plum Creek Hearings

By KEVIN MILLER; OF THE NEWS STAFF

GREENVILLE – Edwin Walden has witnessed plenty of changes in the economy of his native Greenville during his 85 years, and not all of them positive.

But when Walden hears about all of the jobs that Plum Creek’s proposed development would bring to the region, he isn’t convinced.

True, Walden admits, the additional construction would generate some jobs, but at what cost to the natural beauty that makes the Moosehead Lake region unique?

Local store and motel owner Stuart Watt, meanwhile, looks at the large-scale development in Plum Creek’s proposal and sees something completely different. He sees predictability.

“The development has been coming and will continue to come,” Watt, owner of Greenville’s Indian Hill Trading Post, told state regulators Saturday. “At least this way we can plan for it.”

For the past 21/2 years, Mainers from Fort Kent to Kittery have been debating the potential merits and pitfalls of Plum Creek’s historic development proposal for 975 house lots and two large resorts near Maine’s largest lake.

The Land Use Regulation Commission officially began delving into the controversial issue this past weekend when it heard hours of heartfelt, often impassioned testimony during the first two of four public hearings on the proposal.

At least one thing was clear by Sunday night: While levels of support or opposition to the plan seem to vary by region, the state’s population remains deeply divided over the proposal that many believe will change Maine’s North Woods forever.

The monumental question with which LURC’s seven-member volunteer board must wrestle is whether those changes will help or harm the Moosehead region and its economically depressed communities.

“You’re only going to have one chance. Please don’t drop the ball,” Bill Townsend, a former LURC member who opposes Plum Creek’s plan, told the commission.

The opening hearing – held in Greenville, a gateway town to the Moosehead region – attracted a smaller crowd than officials anticipated. The auditorium of Greenville High School was almost filled by about 250 people, most wearing stickers indicating their position on the issue.

Elizabeth Connelly, a 21-year-old Greenville native, said visitors come to the Moosehead area for the experience of “looking out at something unique and something wild.” While some development is good and needed for the region, Connelly said she fears some of the development proposed by Plum Creek will harm the very elements that support the tourist economy.

“I really do think there is a way to do this and a wise way,” Connelly said. “But if we ruin why people come here, then I think it’s a big mistake.”

Barbet Mason also was concerned about the future of the Moosehead region – a future without enough jobs to support the families, like hers, that live in the region if development proposals are crushed.

A lifelong area resident, Mason said it offends her to hear people from other, better-off communities tell Moosehead-area residents what is good for their region. She challenged the Plum Creek opponents from southern Maine to leave their jobs and money behind and attempt to make a living in the Greenville area.

“Our reality is a depressed economy with very little opportunity,” Mason said. “Is [the plan] perfect? No. But it’s an opportunity, and we don’t get many of those here.”

Many of the plan’s supporters seized on the massive land conservation portion of Plum Creek’s plan that, if completed, would be the second-largest conservation deal in U.S. history.

The company is offering to “donate” 91,000 acres of conservation easements to offset development. In addition, Plum Creek has negotiated a series of other land deals – contingent on LURC approval of the development plan – that would permanently protect an additional 340,000 acres in the region.

Ray “Bucky” Owen, former commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, predicted that the benefits of permanent conservation on such a large scale by far outweigh any negative impacts.

“What’s for certain is we will never see a conservation proposal like this again,” Owen said.

While supporters of Plum Creek’s proposal outnumbered critics in Greenville, the opposite was true in Augusta.

Critics assailed the plan as sprawl that will lead Maine down the path of much of the rest of the East Coast. They described Plum Creek as a money-hungry corporation most interested in maximizing profit for its shareholders, not helping Moosehead region communities.

Alan and Kay Michka said they sold their home at the base of the Teton Mountains in Idaho after similar development began changing the character of their town and the local environment. Now, the Lexington Township couple fears the same thing will happen in Maine.

“It’s all about the money,” Kay Michka said. “Please don’t let it all be about money.”

LURC will hold two weeks of hearings with officially recognized intervening parties in Augusta beginning today. The commission then will hold additional public hearings on Plum Creek’s proposal on Dec. 15 in Portland and Dec. 16 in Greenville.

Kevin Miller may be reached at kmiller@ bangordailynews.net or 990-8250.

(c) 2007 Bangor Daily News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.