AUGUSTA – Catherine Carroll, Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) director for the past 10 years, has stepped down from her LURC position to become a senior planner for the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL), the Maine Department of Conservation announced this week.
Both LURC and BPL are divisions within the Maine Department of Conservation (MDOC). The transition is effective immediately.
“It has been a wonderful 24 years at LURC, the last 10 as an administrator,” Carroll said. “Yet now, I feel it is a good time to go back to my first professional love, planning and managing public lands.
“I am proud of my LURC accomplishments and have the highest respect for the LURC commission and staff,” she said. “Needless to say, I am pleased to still be just across the way.”
“We will miss Catherine at LURC, yet look forward to bringing her planning and management skills to Maine’s public lands,” MDOC Commissioner Bill Beardsley said. “She has been with LURC for over half of its 40-year existence, and we will continue to draw on her historical knowledge and professional insights.”
“I have never known LURC without Catherine,” said Gwen Hilton, LURC chair. “I consider her a fine colleague and friend. The board and I will miss her leadership and counsel.”
Gov. Paul LePage appointed Samantha Horn Olsen as acting director of LURC. A graduate of Washington University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Horn Olsen served as manager of LURC’s Division of Planning.
