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APA retreat causes concern

Gov. Nelson Rockefeller signs the bill creating the Adirondack Park Agency in 1971, with members of his Adirondack study commission looking on. Next to him is Harold K. Hochschild, commission chairman and founder of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. (Photo provided by the Lake George Mirror)

Picture two sets of opposing cheerleaders, one representing the Adirondack Park Agency and vocalizing as follows: “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to regulate!”

The other cheerleaders, who represent environmental interests, respond in kind: “Eight, six, four, two, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

OK, that’s admittedly fanciful and a bit simplistic, but it does speak to some tensions surrounding the APA. This state-level regulatory agency was created to control development in the Adirondack Park in a way that protects the Park’s unique natural qualities, while allowing for appropriate development. Recent APA actions, however, raise some important questions: What is and isn’t “appropriate” in the Adirondack Park, and how far can the APA go in telling a developer what he can or cannot do?

These questions were prompted by the Lake Flower Resort and Spa in Saranac Lake village, a proposal approved earlier this month by the APA’s governing commission. Eight commissioners voted to approve the project with no further study. Only one commissioner called for a public hearing to better gauge the impact of a waterfront hotel containing 93 rooms and rising almost 70 feet over Lake Flower.

Violates APA law

The project will be more than twice the height allowed by Saranac Lake’s traditional zoning for that sensitive lakeshore area. It will also violate the APA’s own shoreline setback requirements for new buildings — in this case, 50 feet from the water. Among other concerns expressed by local residents are the effect of stormwater runoff on the lake’s water quality, the lack of adequate parking space, the potential for traffic congestion and the legality of the zoning change that paved the way (literally and figuratively) for the oversized hotel.

So why did the APA green-light a project that will transform Lake Flower and the small-town character of Saranac Lake village? Why didn’t the APA call for a thorough public examination of the proposal, with a hearing officer receiving expert testimony from all sides — as it has done for such relatively minor projects as a proposed sign at the Lowe’s store in Ticonderoga?

To be fair, the pressure on the APA to approve the hotel project has been intense. First and foremost, hamlet areas on the APA zoning map are “the growth and service centers” of the Park, where it’s largely left up to local authorities to do the right thing. Second, the local mayor (a developer himself) and the village board have embraced the project in hopes that it will create jobs and attract tourist dollars. Third, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been a champion of any and all economic development in the Adirondacks, and it’s no secret that the governor gives the APA its marching orders.

Much too big

Yet the real issue is — or should be — whether a particular proposal is right for its site. Does it complement and enhance? Or does it overpower and degrade? Many local residents have questioned the appropriateness of the Lake Flower project, though most agree that the location, where three outmoded motels now stand, is a perfect place for a modern, upscale hostelry — but not one that is so out of scale.

“It’s not who we are,” said one concerned citizen, who treasures the human scale of the village. Why, she wondered, couldn’t the hotel be done in a way that respects its setting? Why is “bigger always better?”

Another questionable action by the APA was its approval of a vast land development on and around Mount Morris in the town of Tupper Lake. As with the Lake Flower project, this second-home subdivision, known as the Adirondack Club and Resort, was welcomed with open arms by town officials. It was seen as the Great Economic Hope for their struggling community.

But for those with environmental concerns, the ACR was everything a land subdivision shouldn’t be. Much of the wooded, 6,000-acre property will be carved into “wilderness estates” with lots ranging in size from 25 to over 100 acres — in defiance of the APA’s mandate to protect open space and wildlife habitat. The agency failed to require the subdivision to be done in accordance with the modern principles of “conservation development,” where building lots are more concentrated and continuous open space is preserved, where “exurban sprawl” is avoided and the natural character of the region is maintained. Instead, the APA allowed the developer to do his own thing, thus setting another destructive precedent for the Adirondacks.

Upcoming test for APA

The APA will be further tested when another ambitious project, the Saranac Lake Marina, comes up for approval. This one, like the two projects noted above, is out of scale for its lovely, peaceful Adirondack setting. If approved as proposed, it has the potential to change the character of Lower Saranac Lake. The Saranac Lake Marina calls for 278 covered boat slips jutting far out into the lake, much more than at the old marina that’s been there for many years. (Editor’s note: The prior two sentences has been corrected; it previously said the marina would have some 350 boat slips, double the old size, and that it would be “the largest boat-docking operation in Adirondack history,” a claim the Enterprise is unable to verify at this time.) Once again, the concept is good. The lake needs a more up-to-date marina. Yet there’s no government authority that will require the project to be properly scaled and not overwhelm its location.

The APA, of course, is supposed to fill that oversight role. It has done so many times since its creation in 1971. We can only hope, for the sake of a wild and beautiful Adirondack Park, that it will start doing so again.

Dick Beamish, an early staff member of the APA, is a Saranac Lake resident and founder of the Adirondack Explorer newsmagazine.

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