‘The way life should be’ shouldn’t include a constant fear of change

By BDN Editorial Board

t feels like we’ve seen this dance many times before. Developers want to launch a project somewhere in Maine. Some local residents have concerns that it will change their way of life. Most people seem to agree that some level of development is needed, but a shared definition of what exactly that looks like remains elusive. 

The Moosehead Lake region is no stranger to this type of conversation. The contentious but long-approved Plum Creek development plans were formally terminated in 2020. As we said around that time, we’re all for taking time and making sure the public is involved in what comes next for the region. But there is a big difference between deliberation and debilitating fear of change. Communities across the state should take care not to confuse the two. 

No two projects are the same. Even with that in mind, we’ve noticed a general trend across the state when it comes to proposed development or infrastructure. Local concerns, not always shared by everyone in a community and not always driven by reason or facts on the ground, tend to slow or scuttle projects that could otherwise help address local, regional and statewide needs.  

“The way life should be” looks different to people, but at the risk of overusing another Maine saying, we can’t get there from here if we constantly focus on what we don’t want our communities to become rather than envisioning, together, what they could be. As we’ve said before on other issues, we can’t get there with fear. 

That brings us to a current proposal in the Moosehead area. Developer Big Lake Development LLC and its partners have proposed a two-phase redevelopment of the existing but diminished ski resort on Big Moose Mountain. Phase one would include a new six-seat chairlift, base ski lodge, 60-room boutique hotel, and brew pub. Phase two would include a 150 to 200 slip marina and nearly 500 residential units. 

Many local business owners and residents see a revitalized ski resort as a welcome economic driver. But some neighbors have raised concerns. 

“There’s a constant tension,” Chris King, secretary of the residents group Moosehead Region Futures Committee, said in a recent attention-grabbing quote. “None of us want to see this place become Bar Harbor.”

For the record, there are worse things than being Bar Harbor. And that is not what is being proposed with the Big Moose Mountain project. 

“I was very pro-Plum Creek, and I’m pro-ski area,” Greenville store owner Helen Schacht told BDN reporter Valerie Royzman. “Greenville will never be too crowded because we’re too far away. We will never be Bar Harbor, ever.”

Maine communities should focus less on what they don’t want to be — what they’re afraid of becoming — and more on what they do want to be. 

Last week, the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) followed a recommendation from its staff and voted unanimously to hold a public hearing on the ski resort proposal as it continues to review the application for phase one of the project. This will further delay the commission’s permitting decision but provide more of an opportunity for dialogue between the developer and the community. 

Again, we’re all for public involvement and deliberation. But this can’t be an indefinite process. This proposal didn’t pop up overnight; it has been in the works for over three years. The developer submitted its application to the LUPC almost a year ago. The LUPC should work to schedule this hearing sooner rather than later, and the developers and community should engage each other with a focus on what they can do together, not from a place of fear. 

There have to be ways to preserve what people love about “Vacationland” without resigning ourselves to “Stagnationland” when it comes to things like creating jobs, improving housing availability and diversifying energy sources. And there have to be ways to open the Moosehead area to more people without losing the magic that brings people there in the first place. To us, redeveloping an existing ski resort with tremendous potential looks like an obvious path to take.