Staff with the Land Use Regulation Commission on Wednesday released a tentative schedule for public hearings and workshops on Plum Creek Timber Co.’s development plan for the Moosehead Lake region.

The LURC staff has proposed holding public hearings on Nov. 4 in Greenville, Nov. 17 in Augusta and Nov. 18 in Portland. The commission also would hold hearings with officially recognized parties in the Bangor-Orono area during the weeks of Nov. 5 and 12.

The full commission is expected to discuss the proposed schedule during a meeting in Rangeley on Sept. 5. The schedule will not become official until approved by the commission.

Seattle-based Plum Creek is seeking LURC authorization to create 975 house lots and two large resorts in the Moosehead region. The development would occur over time on roughly 20,000 acres, making it the largest single development plan ever proposed in Maine.

Plum Creek also has offered to permanently protect from development more than 400,000 acres in the Moosehead region through a combination of easements and land sales to conservation groups. But the conservation package – reportedly the second-largest in U.S. history – is tied to LURC approval of Plum Creek’s overall development plan.

Earlier this month, Greenville officials asked LURC to hold its meetings on Plum Creek’s plans in their town because of the development’s anticipated impacts – both positive and negative – on the region.

But the proposal has generated intense interest throughout Maine, as evidenced by the fact that 32 groups sought LURC recognition as “intervenors” in the application review.

LURC will hear detailed presentations from Plum Creek, government agencies and those intervening parties during the “party testimony” hearings scheduled for the weeks of Nov. 5 and 12.

Those meetings are also open to the public; however, only officially recognized parties can offer testimony. Likewise, intervenors are not permitted under LURC rules to testify during the three public hearings tentatively scheduled for Greenville, Augusta and Portland.

For more information on Plum Creek’s plan, the tentative hearing schedule or LURC’s Sept. 5 meeting, go to http://www

.maine.gov/doc/lurc.