Special Collections: Guide to the Donaldson Koons Papers

Arranged and described by Brenda Howitson Steeves
Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Department
July 2004
 
Introduction and Summary Information
 
Collection Title: Donaldson Koons Papers.
Dates of the Collection: 1967-1979 (inclusive); 1973-1974 (bulk).
Provenance: The Koons papers came to the Special Collections Department in July, 2001 from Professor Richard Judd.
Collection Number: MS 780.
Box Numbers: 1-2 (formerly new accession 2001-0719d).
Size and Arrangement: The collection consists of one archival record carton and one document box of material (1.4 cubic feet).
Conservation Note: The collection has been re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes.
Preferred Citation: Donaldson Koons Papers, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine.
Restrictions on Access and Use: Kept at Fogler Library's offsite storage facility. One week's notice required for retrieval.
 

Biography
 
The collection contains papers of Donaldson Koons of Sidney, Maine, focusing primarily on his work as Chair of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission in 1973 and 1974.
 
Edwin Donaldson Koons was born in 1917 in Seoul, Korea and attended school there, leaving Korea in 1934. He received his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in geology from Columbia University. After serving with the O.S.S. in World War II, he was a professor and department chair of geology at Colby College from 1947 until his retirement in 1982.
 
Long active in efforts to improve water and air quality in Maine, Koons became a member of the Maine Water and Air Environmental Improvement Commission in 1968, serving as Chair from 1969 through 1972. Koons served as a board member of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in 1973 and as Commissioner of the Department of Conservation in 1973-1974. As such he also served as chair of Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission. This body was created by the Legislature in 1971 as a planning and zoning authority for Maine’s townships, plantations, and unorganized areas which have no form of local government to perform these functions. These areas include more than 10.4 million acres of land and encompass coastal islands, parts of the down east area and western mountains, and land up to the Canadian border. The Commission was established in response to a boom in recreational and land development in the late 1960’s; its purpose is “to extend the principles of planning and zoning; to preserve public health, safety, and welfare; to encourage the well-planned, multiple use of natural resources; to promote orderly development; and to protect natural and ecological values.” During Koons’ tenure on the Commission, its activities centered around providing interim zoning for the land under its jurisdiction and adopting a comprehensive land use plan.
 
Koons was also appointed in the mid-1970’s to the state’s Geology Advisory Committee, a group formed to assist and advise the State Geologist and the Maine Geological Survey. A Fellow of the Geological Society of America and Dana Professor of Geology, Emeritus at Colby, he remains active in the geological community.
 
 

Scope and Content Note
 
This small collection consists primarily of Donaldson Koons’ records from his tenure with the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC). The records date from 1973-1975; folders are arranged in alphabetical order with headings used by Koons. Information has been added for clarity as needed.
 
The LURC records concern both policy matters and day-to-day operations of the Commission. They involve activities to develop a comprehensive plan for land use and development, planning documents, legislation, correspondence, lawsuits involving the Commission, and documents outlining Koons’ differences with the Commission’s executive director at the time.
 
Also included in the collection are a few folders, mostly correspondence, from Koons’ service on the Maine Water and Air Environmental Improvement Commission, later the Environmental Improvement Commission, and material documenting his involvement with various environmental groups in the state.
 

Box List
 
Maine Water and Air Environmental Improvement Commission/Maine Environmental Improvement Commission records
 
Box 1
 
Folder
 
1 WAEIC correspondence, 1968
2 WAEIC correspondence, 1969
3 WAEIC correspondence, 1970
4-5 WAEIC correspondence, 1971
6 EIC correspondence, 1972
7 Attorney General’s opinions, 1969-1970 [memos to EIC]
8 Governor’s letters re complaints, 1969 [re siting of industries]
 
Maine Land Use Regulation Commission records
 
9 Air Pollution Control Act, 1967
10 Commissioners, 1974
11-12 Comprehensive plan, 1975
13 Comprehensive plan II
14 Conference on Forest Land Use Regulations for Mountain Soils, 1975
[LURC packet]
15 Correspondence, 1973
16 Critical areas program-Alec Giffin, 1974-1975
17 Current planning papers, 1975
18 Deer wintering problem, 1973-1974
19 Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Game recommendations, 1974
20 LURC development code, 1975
21 Fallon & Perkins suits, 1975
22 Interviews [Executive Director, LURC, 1973]
23 LD 14, 1333 and related material, 1975
24 LD 509, 1974-1975
25 Lakesites decision, 1973
26 Land Use and Conservation Act of 1975 (HR 3510) + notes
27 LURC, 1973
28 Maine Housing Authority memo, 1975 [application for community development funds relative to mobile home sitings]
29 Monday business [LURC executive director], 1974
30 Resignation [of James S. Haskell, Jr. from LURC, 1974]
31 Revision to LURC law
 
 
 
Box 1 cont.
 
Maine Land Use Regulation Commission records cont.
 
Folder
 
32 Spring Lake Corp., 1973
33 Steinitz [Rogers Associates proposal for LURC, 1974]
34 Summons/complaints v. LURC, 1973
35 Wetlands definition, 1974
36 Zoning
 
Records of other groups
 
37 Barringer appt., 1979 [as Commissioner of Conservation]
38 Coastal Trust, Coastal Foundation, 1972-1973
39 Commission on Maine’s Future, 1974-1976
 
Box 2
 
1 Commission on Maine’s Future, 1974-1976
2-3 Geology Advisory Committee, 1978-1979
4 Lakes classification from Reed & D’Andrea, 1975 [Dept. of Conservation]
5 Parks & Recreation, 1976

Finding Aids for selected manuscript collections in the Special Collections Department at Fogler Library are accessible online in URSUS, in a browsable Guide to Manuscript Collections. Please contact Special Collections at spc@umit.maine.edu or (207) 581-1686 for further information.

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Special Collections Staff: spc@umit.maine.edu | Revised: 01/16/2013