|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GROWSMART MAINE SEEKS ‘SMART GROWTH’ CHANGES TO PLUM CREEK PROPOSAL, RAISES CONNECTIONS TO GLOBAL WARMING
Suggests How to Reduce Plan’s ‘Carbon Footprint’
CONTACTS:
Alan Caron, President, GrowSmart Maine, (207) 847-9275, ext. 307
Beth Nagusky, Climate Change Program Director, GrowSmart Maine, 847-9275, ext. 306
Michael Stoddard, Environment Northeast, 761-4566
Sean Mahoney, Conservation Law Foundation, 729-7733
GrowSmart Maine, the Yarmouth-based non-profit that released the Brookings Report on Sustainable Prosperity last fall, has intervened in the Land Use Regulation Commission’s pending review of the Plum Creek Concept Plan and Rezoning for the Moosehead Lake Region.
The Plum Creek Plan constitutes the largest development proposal in Maine’s history, and includes 975 residential units, 1050 resort units, 2 resort lodges, 190 employee housing units, 100 affordable housing units, and five commercial zones.
GrowSmart has partnered with: The Smart Growth Leadership Institute, headed by former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening; Environment Northeast, a Maine research and advocacy organization that has analyzed the Plum Creek plan for its effects on climate change; and, The Conservation Law Foundation, which is providing legal assistance to GrowSmart in the LURC proceedings.
In its testimony GrowSmart outlined six smart growth principles that should be applied to the Plan, outlined the strengths and weaknesses of Plum Creek’s proposal, and offered recommendations on how the Plan could conform to the principles. While raising significant concerns with aspects of Plum Creek’s current plans, GrowSmart stated that it might ultimately support the Plan if it were modified by the applicant or conditioned by LURC to conform to the six smart growth principles.
“The bottom line is that this proposal provides a test case of whether we can have large scale planned development in Northern Maine while at the same time protecting the character of the region and the state as a whole. I believe that the answer is yes, but only if it’s done right, and if Maine is not afraid to insist that it be done that way, or not at all,” stated Alan Caron, GrowSmart President.
GrowSmart’s land use planner Bruce Hyman identified recommended changes to address the Plan’s weaknesses, including:
- Locate more of the residential units closer to existing infrastructure and better integrate with the fabric of existing towns and development;
- Make residential and resort development more compact, with employee and affordable housing integrated into the developments;
- Make the resorts LEED compliant and new buildings energy efficient;
- Ensure a broader discussion of the quality of development that will occur if the Concept Plan is approved;
- Promote travel by foot and bicycle within the developments; and,
- Configure and locate development to make it less auto-dependent.
This is the first time in Maine, and perhaps nationally, that the connection between large-scale land use development and global warming is being made. According to Alan Caron, “We raised the issue of global warming in the Plum Creek case because land use development and global warming can no longer be looked at as two separate and unrelated issues. Global warming will almost surely have a greater impact, over time, on the environment and economics of this region than will this development proposed by Plum Creek.”
Environment Northeast completed an assessment quantifying the amount of carbon dioxide that the Plum Creek Concept Plan would produce from clearing 14,000 acres of forest land for the development, as well as the amount that would be emitted each year from transportation and building energy use. “The global warming impact of the Plum Creek project is substantial,” said Dan Sosland, executive director, Environment Northeast. “The initial land clearing alone would release some 222,000 tons of carbon dioxide, about one-third the annual emissions of the Wyman Station power plant in Yarmouth. Plum Creek’s plan challenges Maine’s commitments to lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but modifications based on smart growth principles could substantially reduce the amount of carbon produced.”
ENE’s assessment further found that roughly 9,566 metric tons of carbon dioxide would be emitted each year from transportation associated with the development, and approximately 13,018 metric tons of carbon dioxide would be released from annual energy use in the development’s buildings. Together these emissions equal the amount of carbon that would be produced each year by adding approximately 4,300 cars to Maine’s highways. Modifying the resort development could yield substantial savings in greenhouse gases emitted. Clustering the residential units and decreasing the size of the lots could reduce the amount of land cleared up to 41 percent, yielding a corresponding drop in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted. Use of advanced building design could cost-effectively improve the energy efficiency of newly constructed buildings by as much as 50 percent.
Former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, submitted testimony for GrowSmart that the Plum Creek Plan can serve as a national precedent for large-scale developments to reduce their carbon footprints. “New resorts and residential subdivisions, even those in the Maine woods, do not need to be built around the automobile. If this project is approved, our goal should be to permanently place 386,000 acres under conservation easement, stimulate the northern Maine economy and be a national model of smart growth and sustainability.”
|
