TUPPER LAKE - The village board voted Monday night to sign an agreement regarding the mediation of the Adirondack Club and Resort, the development that would reopen the former Big Tupper Ski Area and develop the land around it.
No one will say what the agreement is, however.
The project has been stalled in the process to get a permit from the state Adirondack Park Agency for two years. First the APA pushed it into adjudicatory hearings to examine issues with it. Then, at the request of developer Michael Foxman, it was sidelined into mediation meetings with interested parties to work out those issues less formally. Then Foxman stalled those to hold meetings in smaller groups.
The project is moving back into the mediation phase next week with two mediation sessions scheduled to run all day Monday and Tuesday at The Wild Center.
Since the mediation began, all the parties who signed on to participate have been bound by a confidentiality contract.
While neither village officials nor the project's lead developer, Michael Foxman, would disclose the nature of the agreement, Foxman said the "meat" of the non-binding agreement is acknowledging that he has made significant concessions to his development plans.
Foxman said it is not an agreement to bring the project out of the mediation process back into the adjudicatory hearings, but "it will probably signal the end of the mediation."
The agreement consists of a three-ring binder's worth of information, including the revised site plan, Foxman said. Binders were sent out to about six of the involved parties, but the rest have had the opportunity to access it online at a Web site set up by the LA Group consulting firm, Foxman said.
"It's extensive material," said Foxman.
Foxman said Wednesday he knew of one other party that had signed the agreement so far.
John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said he was not familiar with the agreement but that it sounded like Foxman was planning to throw everything on the table and blame it on the environmental groups if it is not approved by the APA, which he said is inevitable.
"Nothing has changed substantially enough to get a permit from the Park Agency, the (state Department of Environmental Conservation) and the Department of Health," said Sheehan.
Sheehan said that if the project tanks, the Adirondack Council wants to help find another plan to open Big Tupper. He suggested the surrounding municipalities could run the ski center with assistance from the Franklin County Industrial Development Agency, or the state Olympic Regional Development Authority could take over.
ORDA spokesman Stephanie Ryan said it would be difficult for ORDA to take control of the ski slope because it would involve getting special legislation passed, as was required for the organization to link Gore Mountain and the North Creek Ski Bowl.
"It's out of our hands," said Ryan. "It's all through legislation, and we don't currently have that enabling legislation for that."
But Foxman said it won't come to that. He said there's no doubt that he wants to continue working to get his development through.
"I think that when the project plans are made public, the new site plan, the people will like it quite a bit," said Foxman. "We have some very exciting product there that I think will sell well even in the current market."
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Contact Jessica Collier at 891-2600 ext. 25 or jcollier@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.