Evan Richert of Portland, a consultant hired by the Land Use Regulation Commission to help process the Seattle-based company's proposed development plan, met on Thursday with members of the Moosehead Development Council, the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council and the Somerset County Economic Development Council.

Plum Creek has petitioned LURC to rezone 426,000 acres in the unorganized territory in order to implement a concept plan that includes development of about 1,000 house lots, two resorts, three recreational vehicle parks, a golf course and a marina.

To mitigate the project, the company has proposed to leave nearly 400,000 of the acres in the region undeveloped for 30 years.

The company is now revising its concept plan and expects to present it to LURC by year's end.

"He [Richert] is trying to break down the different aspects of the plan and get input from specific groups in terms of the economic value of Plum Creek's plan," Greenville Town Manager John Simko said Friday.

Simko said Richert held a meeting Friday with Greenville municipal officials and Geno Murray, chief executive officer of the Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital, in an effort to understand how municipal services are delivered to the unorganized territory.

"I guess it became very clear that the proposal could cure and solve a lot of issues we have here," Simko said. "Clearly there's great potential here [with the plan]."

Permanent hiking trails, permanent snowmobile trails, the creation of affordable housing, or the prospect of attracting a major wood products manufacturer - since the company plans to keep 98 percent of its land in conservation and working forest - all would benefit the local economy, Simko said.

But local officials want some ideas from Plum Creek to realize those benefits. For example, Simko said Plum Creek has offered to donate up to 100 acres of land in a local community for affordable housing.

However, the town has no program lined up to make use of the land nor does it have any funding in place to develop it, he said.

"It might be appropriate for LURC to say, 'OK, Plum Creek, you're forecasting these benefits, give us more details to show us exactly how this would work,'" Simko said, "because Plum Creek would be able to give us some examples."