Section 188-2-61 - Lease Expansion1. Application. A lessee may apply for Department approval of a lease expansion on a form supplied by the Commissioner. A lessee is eligible to apply for an expansion 2 years from the date the lease was originally executed. If a lease contains multiple tracts, the expansion must be proportional to each tract. The dimensions of the proposed expansion must be reasonably based on the original lease dimensions.2. Fee. An application for lease expansion shall not be considered until a nonrefundable application fee has been paid. The application fee for a lease expansion is $500 for non-discharge leases and $2000 for discharge leases.3. Procedure. A lease expansion is not an adjudicatory proceeding. A. After the Department has deemed the application complete, the applicant shall publish a notice of the proposed expansion in a newspaper of general circulation in the area of the lease.B. The Department shall notify all riparian owners within 1,000 feet of the lease site, and the municipal officers of the municipality in which the lease is located or Bureau of Revenue Services, Unorganized Division for unorganized territory of the completed lease expansion application. The notice shall provide the riparians, and municipal officers with 30 days to provide written comments about the proposed expansion.C. The Commissioner may require the applicant to conduct an environmental characterization of the proposed expansion. This characterization shall be done in accordance with Chapter 2.10(C) at the Department's direction. The applicant shall provide this characterization to the Department at the applicant's expense. The environmental characterization shall be conducted at a time of year that the Department determines appropriate to adequately evaluate the proposed location.4. Decision. The Commissioner may grant the lease expansion if it is determined that: A. the lease expansion does not violate any of the lease issuance criteria set forth in 12 M.R.S.A. §6072 (7-A) and is consistent with the Commissioner's findings on the underlying lease application in accordance with Chapter 2.37(A);B. the lease expansion does not violate any of the conditions set forth in the original lease;C. the lease expansion is not for speculative purposes. Consideration of speculative purposes includes whether the current lessee has conducted substantially no research or aquaculture in the lease areas during the previous lease term; andD. the expansion will not cause the applicant to be a tenant of any kind in leases covering an aggregate of more than 1,000 acres.13-188 C.M.R. ch. 2, § 61