More than 100 opponents of the Maine DEP’s proposed Act to Update the Site Location of Development Laws squeezed into the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources’ public hearing on the bill on Tuesday afternoon to protest the controversial LD 1268. All of us at Main-Land Development Consultants, which has led the charge against LD 1268, were humbled by the turnout and the testimony against the bill, which lasted more than two hours and gave voice to more than 45 challengers (compared to the six who spoke in favor, including a rep from the Maine DEP). The entire Main-Land team attended the hearing in a show of support, and the Livermore Falls office was closed for the afternoon (DEP meanwhile only had two representatives at the hearing and the State Planning Office was visibly absent).

Whether it was the private land owners who came to the state house from towns like Bingham, Norway and Roxbury; the Hampden planning board member; the Franklin County Commissioner; the economic development director for the town of Madison; the Gorham contractor; the president of Franklin Savings Bank; or representatives from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Maine, Wagner Forestry, the Maine Real Estate and Development Association, WBRC Architects, the Erickson Foundation, the Maine Aggregate Association, the Maine Association of Realtors and the Maine Municipal Association, all said “No!” to LD 1268 in a loud, unified and informed voice. While each speaker approached their testimony in a different way during the three hour hearing, all opponents spoke to their concerns about how rural Maine would be left behind by the bill, as would rural Maine landowners who would see their property values plumet if LD 1268 was to be enacted.

Even Rep. Tom Saviello (U-Wilton), who is a co-sponsor of the bill, spoke against it, saying it was a “solution looking for a problem” and that if enacted “this bill as written will continue our decline” in western Maine, which has been hit hard lately by job losses, including the impending closure of the Wausau Mill in Livermore Falls/Jay.

Speaking on behalf of the Maine Municipal Association, whose policy committee voted to oppose the bill, Jeff Austin said the crisis in much of Maine is not growth, but the struggle to survive. “Growth isn’t the challenge; it’s the loss of citizens and the loss of jobs that’s the crisis. The question facing municipalities now is how do we attract more, not how do we manage growth,” he explained.

Speaking neither for or against the bill was GrowSmart (whose entire mission is to prevent sprawl as Maine DEP claims this bill was intended to do) and the Maine Turnpike Authority, and even the Maine Association of Planners who spoke for the bill said they did with “cautious optimism.”

The bill will now get sent to a work session where we and the other opponents hope the committee will have the sense to kill the bill by giving it an “ought not to pass.” In the meantime, we encourage those concerned about the bill flood the Natural Resources Committee with letters of opposition. You can link to the committee’s contact information here. And continue checking back here for the latest updates on LD 1268’s progress.

You can read more about the hearing here in the front page story from Wednesday’s Lewiston Sun Journal, or in Mainebiz’s Wednesday Daily. WCSH 6 also covered the hearing, and we’ll post that clip when it becomes available.