AUGUSTA ( AP) — A legislative committee has agreed on a long-simmering bill to overhaul the way development is regulated in Maine’s Unorganized Territory.
The Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on Thursday gave final approval by a 12-0 vote, with one absent, to a bill to overhaul the Land Use Regulation Commission. It includes numerous changes from earlier versions, and removes a provision that allowed counties to drop out of LURC’s protections.
The bill also ensures that county commissioners who would become the land use regulators are qualified to do so.
Environmentalists say the worst part of the bill, which allowed counties to opt out of LURC oversight, was dropped. Republicans call the finished product a compromise.
Republican Senate President Kevin Raye of Perry says the bill moves LURC functions out of Augusta.
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