MAINEBIZ • May 11, 2021
The Land Use Planning Commission, the division of the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry that oversees 10.4 million acres of unorganized territory in the state, is turning 50 and doing what a lot of us do when we hit that mark — changing things up a little. The LUPC was founded in 1971 after the 1968 legislative "Report on the Wildlands" determined that more oversight was needed to protect unorganized areas. And so, the LUPC, or at the time the Land Use Regulation Committee — LURC — was born. "Fifty years is a long time, and the requirement of extending sound planning, zoning and permitting to Maine's 'wild lands' remains true today," the commission says on its 50th anniversary webpage.