A plantation in western Somerset County will vote Saturday on the first step to deorganize at a special municipal meeting.
Highland Plantation has long held a population of around 50 people and has a median household income of roughly $42,000, according to the 2020 Census.
The community is one of two municipalities voting to disband in the coming days. Maxfield, a town of 89 people in Penobscot County, will vote on Monday.
They’re the latest remote communities in Maine looking to dissolve as people, especially young families, leave rural areas, and rising costs far outpace residents’ limited incomes.
Other communities that disbanded in the past decade include Drew Plantation in 2023, Magalloway Plantation in 2021, Codyville Plantation in 2019 and Atkinson in 2016.
Maine’s unorganized territory makes up more than half of the state.
The warrant for the meeting in Highland Plantation cites the petition circulated by three residents that started the process. The residents cited a lack of new citizens to hold essential positions needed to run the plantation and a bare-bones budget that residents can’t afford to increase as reasons for dissolving.
A plantation is a type of municipality that Maine has been using since colonial times and is not seen in any other state. When first used, being designated a plantation was meant to serve as an intermediate step for a low-population area to incorporate and grow to become a town without being classified as part of the state’s unorganized territory.
Highland Plantation has three elected assessors as its sole local representatives whose job it is to set the community’s budget. Property taxes fund roads and the few services offered such as solid-waste removal.
In addition, plantation assessors are able to set ordinances or local laws pertaining to land use, zoning and planning.
Property taxes have not been able to keep up with the “ever-increasing annual budget,” the warrant reads, despite the plantation “already operating with the bare minimum of expenses.”
Residents paid $1.09 in property taxes for every $100,000 in property value in 2025.
Bills are getting paid and the plantation’s infrastructure is still sound, but with a majority of residents on fixed incomes, residents don’t know how long the community can continue funding itself, said Harold Jones, state fiscal administrator for the Unorganized Territory.
Essential positions needed for “critical municipal functions” are going unfilled because of an aging population that isn’t being replaced by new residents. Roles will continue to go understaffed as the population decreases, the warrant said.
“They’re starting to get up there. But to the same point, they’re at the point where they want to retire, enjoy the fruits of their lives too,” Jones said.
The three assessors did not respond to a request for comment.
Highland residents recently voted to join the Maine Land Use Planning Commission instead of holding their own board for zoning, planning and land use. The plantation did not have funding for legal advice for their own board or staffing and resources to enforce their decisions.
This vote is the second step in the 12-step process to deorganize and become part of Maine’s unorganized territory. When a town dissolves itself, the remaining services citizens receive are split between the county and the state.
The special town meeting for the vote will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Town House at 2185 Long Falls Dam Rd.
