An Act to Reform the Land Use and Planning Authority within Unorganized Territories in the State (2009)
The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) was created in 1971 to guide land use and planning decisions in Maine’s unorganized territories, including 10.4 million acres of Maine’s North Woods. This session, numerous bills were introduced which would have significantly eroded LURC’s regulatory abilities. The most troubling of these proposals was LD 1370, which would have eliminated LURC altogether and instead allowed each county within the unorganized territories to regulate land use planning. This failed bill would have significantly weakened Maine’s current environmental protections in the unorganized territories because comprehensive planning and enforcement of environmental regulations for much of Maine’s North Woods would have been lost.
