SAM Magazine—Greenville, Maine, Feb. 10, 2022—The Maine Land Use Planning Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to hold a public hearing on the proposed $113.5 million expansion to the Big Squaw Mountain ski area in Piscataquis County, Maine. 

Developer Big Lake Development LLC has proposed a two-phase project that would expand the resort and its amenities. Plans for phase one outlined a new six-pack chair lift, base lodge, 60 room hotel, brewhouse, and other amenities. A more-robust phase two includes a 150-200 slip marina on a nearby lake and the development of nearly 500 condominiums. 

The hearing was requested as concerns have grown amongst locals that the project will negatively impact the Moosehead Lake region and the nearby town of Greenville, a remote community with a population of just over 1,400. The Moosehead Region Futures Committee, a nonprofit group of residents acting as advocates for responsible commercial and industrial development in the area, expressed concerns with sewage disposal and the developer’s financial capacity to see the project to fruition, according to Chris King, the committee’s secretary. 

The developer said the hearing will simply delay the planning commission’s decision on permitting, which would set the timeline back by as much as a few months, causing a ripple effect on ordering building materials and equipment for the proposed new lift.

Currently, the sewage issue remains an area of focus for the committee. “For the developer to cite our delay in requesting a hearing seems a little incongruous to me,” King said. “The developer still has not even gotten an agreement from the sanitary district to accept any effluent from the project.”

King also noted that although the committee requested the hearing, it is not necessarily opposed to redevelopment. 

The planning commission said it will review the development proposal, as it has with past projects of this nature. The nine-member commission has worked with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in the past to evaluate impacts on streams and wetlands, for the sake of protecting Maine’s natural resources. Committee member William Gillmore highlighted past involvement with the Saddleback Mountain redevelopment and suggested public input from a hearing could enhance the development process. 

A date for the hearing has not yet been set.

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