[at-l] "Hut and trail system gets boost"

[Snodrog5@xxxxxxx (Snodrog5@xxxxxxx)]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
I don't usually comment when I share news, but I will this time.
This is not good.
TJ

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Hut and trail system gets boost
Public Utilities Commission staff say CMP may lease its land
By JOE RANKIN, Staff Writer
 AUGUSTA =E2=80=94 Maine Public Utilities Commission staff members say ther=
e are no
grounds for an investigation into the leasing of land on Flagstaff Lake for=
 a
lodge that would be part of a western Maine hut and trail system.
In a recommended decision released Monday, the staff said there is no legal
basis for requiring landowner Central Maine Power Co. to limit use of the
property to the purpose for which it was originally purchased.

The Commission will likely act on the recommendation at a meeting March 3.

CMP last year leased 29 acres in Dead River Township just north of the
33,000-acre Bigelow Preserve on the eastern shore of the lake to the
Carrabassett Valley-based Western Mountain Foundation.

The foundation wants to build a lodge there. It would be one of a dozen
sprinkled along a 180-mile recreational trail running from Newry to Rockwoo=
d.


Larry Warren, the Foundation's point man on the hut and trail project, hail=
ed
the recommendation.

If the PUC agrees that no investigation is warranted, the debate over the
project will shift to the Land Use Regulation Commission, which must approv=
e
the lodge plans.

The Foundation is also seeking to run an eight-mile section of the trail
across the Bigelow Preserve, linking the Flagstaff lodge with one in
Carrabassett Valley to the south.

The Friends of Bigelow and some other conservation groups are opposing both
the Flagstaff lodge and the proposal for a groomed cross country ski trail
across the preserve. They say they would commercialize the preserve.

Friends President Richard Fecteau said he is disappointed with the PUC
staff's recommendation, which he says seems to run counter to common sense.

At the request of the Friends, the state's public advocate asked the PUC to
open an investigation into whether CMP had the right to lease the land to
Western Mountain Foundation.

Public Advocate Stephen Ward raised the question of whether CMP was limited
to using the land for the public purpose for which it acquired the land.

CMP acquired the land in the Dead River Valley in the 1940s as part of the
Flagstaff Lake reservoir project. The utility bought the land, and did not
take it through eminent domain, the commissioners noted.

In 1999 CMP sold its interest in the Long Falls Dam and the rest of the
Flagstaff project to FPL Energy Maine Hydro, but retained some lands at the
eastern end of the lake, including the parcel the foundation is leasing.

In their recommended decision, commission staffers say no state laws limit
the use of land acquired for a public purpose to that specific purpose.

Because of that, the PUC has "no authority to impose such a requirement," t=
he
PUC staff said.