enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

The Eagles Trace subdivision in Acton has 24 lots, but developer David Jones is proposing an adjacent 67-lot subdivision. Most of the first phase of the development is sold.

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This new subdivision -- Eagles Trace -- has the feeling of a wealthy suburb. Except that it's too quiet. There isn't a highway, or even a traffic light, for miles.

Eagles Trace is one of many new neighborhoods coming to life in the woods of southern and western Maine. It's one of several in Acton, a town of about 2,600 people and three convenience stores near the New Hampshire border in southwestern York County.

It's not jobs that draw new residents -- big industries include growing apples and growing trees. It's the peace and quiet, the low tax rate -- $8.95 per $1,000 of assessed valuation -- the natural beauty and the slow pace.

The neighborhood is attracting buyers from within Maine and from as far as California, where Lee and Janine Hague owned a large ranch before moving east.

The Hagues bought Acton's first million-dollar home -- $1.2 million, to be precise. It's a sprawling house on 15 acres set in a private corner of Eagles Trace, overlooking a small pond.

They hadn't thought of moving to Maine until finding the house on eBay, the Internet auction site.

"We looked all over the Rocky Mountains. We were looking for four years," Lee Hague said. "I want privacy, and we have that. And yet we're close to all the facilities. ... You cannot duplicate this location."

Acton is just outside Sanford, about an hour from Portland but closer to the New Hampshire communities of Portsmouth, Conway and Rochester. Eagles Trace is set off a back road on 320 acres of woods, which are surrounded by more woods.

Janine Hague, who runs a Web-based retail business, agrees that rural Maine beats the Sierra Nevada. "For me, this is much prettier," she said.

Eagles Trace now includes 24 lots. Developer David Jones is seeking approval for 67 more.

Some of the new residents of Acton and other rural Maine towns are commuting to jobs in the surrounding cities. But Eagles Trace is geared more toward retirees. Buyers have to be at least 55 years old.

Like most towns in rural York County, Acton responded to a recent surge in new development by setting a limit on the number of building permits it will give out each year. Acton's cap is 35, but it exempts subdivisions for residents 55 or older, because those homes will not attract a lot of children and add to the enrollment pressures on schools.

Acton has a two-acre minimum lot size, but Jones got permission for smaller, clustered lots that are mostly surrounded by conservation lands. A home-owners association eventually will maintain the conservation land and roads.

The emergence of neighborhoods in the woods here is a new experience for longtime residents such as Lorraine Yeaton, administrative assistant to the town's Board of Selectmen. She moved here after the 1947 forest fires burned her family out of neighboring Newfield.

Residents have gotten used to a gradual increase in the number of driveways along back roads, patches of familiar woods getting cut down to make way for homes, and new neighbors.

"Most of them have come here because they want to get away from the push of the city and they're willing to go a little slower," Yeaton said. "I don't know why except it's a nice place to live, or it used to be a nice town. But I'm getting worried they'll push us out here."

Acton's growth cap is a clear sign of that concern. Residents are working on a comprehensive plan to try to steer the growth into less sensitive areas, said Tom Cashin, a member of the Acton Planning Board and Comprehensive Plan Committee.

"There's a perception on the part of the native folks that the fabric that they know and cherish is somewhat under assault," Cashin said. "There's better communication, and there's a better sense of community because, I think, there's a growing awareness of the threat."

But Cashin admits it's been hard...