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Moosehead Region Focuses on
New and Increasing Developmental Pressures
Facing Maine’s North Woods in 2022

Moosehead Regional Planning Project to be Completed
by Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission by End of 2022

In July 2020, Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) terminated the Moosehead Region Concept Plan at the request of the landowner, the Weyerhaeuser Corporation.

As a result of this action, LUPC temporarily re-zoned thirty-two parcels from development zones to its General Management zone. These parcels comprise almost 17,000 acres of forest land, spread across the Moosehead Lake Region. Although these parcels had been zoned in the Concept Plan for various types of commercial and residential development, no development was ever undertaken on any of these parcels during the existence of the Concept Plan.

To institute permanent zoning for these thirty-two parcels, LUPC began a process to solicit community input on what the permanent zoning for those thirty-two parcels should be. LUPC calls this process the Moosehead Regional Planning Project. To date, LUPC has solicited community input through the Planning Project’s web site, and in in-person and virtual public meetings held during 2021.

In response, LUPC has received numerous comments, including letters from conservation-minded groups, including Natural Resources Council of Maine, Forest Society of Maine, Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Audubon, Moosehead Region Futures Committee, among others. All comments in the public record can be viewed here.

According to LUPC’s timeline, LUPC’s Staff is currently in the process of “develop[ing] a ‘Regional Planning Package’ consisting of a single set of draft zoning maps….” When the Staff has finished its work on the Package, it will solicit public comment on it, again both on its Planning Project website and at public meetings. The public meetings are tentatively planned for Spring 2022. Subsequently, LUPC will conduct a “formal Land Use Guidance Map adoption process”, during the Summer and Fall of 2022, with completion of the entire Moosehead Regional Planning Project by the end of 2022.

Big Moose Mountain Resort Redevelopment Plans