diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Layer/EventPane.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Layer/EventPane.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..67ac560149
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Layer/EventPane.js
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+/* Copyright (c) 2006 MetaCarta, Inc., published under the BSD license.
+ * See http://svn.openlayers.org/trunk/openlayers/license.txt for the full
+ * text of the license. */
+/**
+ * @class
+ */
+OpenLayers.Layer.EventPane = Class.create();
+OpenLayers.Layer.EventPane.prototype = Object.extend(new OpenLayers.Layer, {
+    /**
+     * @constructor
+     * 
+     * @param {String} name
+     * @param {Object} options Hashtable of extra options to tag onto the layer
+     */
+    initialize: function(name, options) {
+        if (arguments.length > 0) {
+
+            //store a copy of the custom options for later cloning
+            this.options = Object.extend(new Object(), options);
+            
+            //add options to layer
+            Object.extend(this, this.options);
+
+            this.name = name;
+            
+            //generate unique id based on name
+            this.id = OpenLayers.Util.createUniqueID("Layer_");
+            
+            if (this.div == null) {
+                this.div = OpenLayers.Util.createDiv();
+                this.div.style.width = "100%";
+                this.div.style.height = "100%";
+            }
+        }
+    },
+    
+   /**
+    * @returns An exact clone of this OpenLayers.Layer
+    * @type OpenLayers.Layer
+    */
+    clone: function (obj) {
+        
+        if (obj == null) {
+            obj = new OpenLayers.Layer(this.name, this.options);
+        } 
+        
+        // catch any randomly tagged-on properties
+        obj = OpenLayers.Util.applyDefaults(obj, this);
+        
+        // a cloned layer should never have its map property set
+        //  because it has not been added to a map yet. 
+        obj.map = null;
+        
+        return obj;
+    },
+
+    /** Set the map property for the layer. This is done through an accessor
+     *   so that subclasses can override this and take special action once 
+     *   they have their map variable set. 
+     * 
+     * @param {OpenLayers.Map} map
+     */
+    setMap: function(map) {
+        this.map = map;
+        
+        var properties = new Array(
+          'projection', 'minExtent', 'maxExtent',
+          'minScale', 'maxScale',
+          'maxResolution', 'minResolution', 
+          'minZoomLevel', 'maxZoomLevel', 'units',
+          'scales', 'resolutions'
+          
+        );
+        for(var i=0; i < properties.length; i++) {
+            if (this[properties[i]] == null) {
+                this[properties[i]] = this.map[properties[i]];
+            }    
+        }
+    },
+  
+    /** 
+     * @param {Boolean} visible
+     * @param {Boolean} noEvent
+     */
+    setVisibility: function(visible, noEvent) {
+        if (visible != this.getVisibility()) {
+            this.div.style.display = (visible) ? "block" : "none";
+            if ((visible) && (this.map != null)) {
+                var extent = this.map.getExtent();
+                if (extent != null) {
+                    this.moveTo(this.map.getExtent());
+                }
+            }
+            if ((this.map != null) && 
+                ((noEvent == null) || (noEvent == false))) {
+                this.map.events.triggerEvent("changelayer");
+            }
+        }
+    },
+
+    /** @final @type String */
+    CLASS_NAME: "OpenLayers.Layer.EventPane"
+});