It's about time!

Kudos to Jim Calafone, owner of the long-neglected Big Moose Mountain resort and 6,500 surrounding acres just north of Greenville for his proposal to finally make something of the place.

The backside of Big Moose Mountain from atop the ridge on Little Moose Mountain. There's big development plans for the Greenville resort in the news today. What do you think?
Carey Kish photo

I've always thought--and I know I'm not alone on this--that Big Moose has had tremendous recreational and economic development potential, so it's exciting to see someone stepping forward with a plan.

Califone's plans include upgrades to the ski area lifts, base lodge and hotel, all of which have sat wastefully dormant for some time. Two-hundred condos are also on tap, as well as an 18-hole golf course, two hotels and conference centers, single-family homes and a train station.

You go Jim! This is great news!

"We are confident that the eventual plan will be a sound and environmentally sensitive approach for future growth," said Tom Farmer, a planner with DeWan and Associates of Yarmouth.

Good. Hard to argue with that.

Such a sound and compact package of balanced development ought to easily garner good local support and navigate the LURC process just fine.

Greenville's town manager John Simko called the proposal a "tremendous benefit" for the region.

Ditto that.

Of course, this good news comes just as the revised Plum Creek plan is due for review later this fall.

How Plum Creek will effect Califone's plans for Big Moose is anybody's guess. The two would appear to be very complementary in my view. But then, I'm a Plum Creek advocate.

What are your thoughts on this Big Moose news? And what about Plum Creek? Are the two proposals together too much? Or just right?