AUGUSTA – A proposal to build a wind farm with as many as 27 turbines on eastern Maine’s Bowers Mountain is scheduled for hearings before state regulators later this month.

The public will have an opportunity to comment before the Land Use Regulation Commission at 6 p.m. on June 27 and 28 at Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln. A presentation by the commission’s staff and testimony by the applicant and the interveners will be held June 28 and then continue July 6 in Bangor.

The application for the $136 million wind power development was submitted by Champlain Wind LLC, a subsidiary of First Wind, the Massachusetts company that has other projects in Maine. The project on top of the 1,127-foot mountain would have a maximum energy output of 57 megawatts.

The proposed site is about 10 miles east of Lee in Carroll Plantation and Kossuth Township, Penobscot County. It is located within the area designated for expedited permitting.

Groups opposed to large-scale wind projects continue to push for more stringent regulation of them.

Friends of Maine Mountains held a news conference Friday at the State House in which it called for passage of a bill establishing minimum setbacks for industrial wind turbines, while still allowing property owners to allow reduced setbacks.