SARATOGA?SPRINGS?- The LA Group, a Saratoga-based consulting group, won a regional award for its Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project.

The New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association awarded the APRAP its 2009 Planning Excellence Award for Best Practice. The study was released in the spring of 2009.

The Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages and the Adirondack North Country Association sponsored the APRAP, which studied the demographics, community life, government operations, land use, infrastructure, emergency services and education of communities in the Adirondack Park.

The study found that populations in the Park are growing older and sparser, school enrollments are decreasing while the number of school employees are increasing, and people with mailing addresses outside the Park own about 40 percent of residential parcels within it.

The APRAP was also featured in an article in the chapter's December 2009 newsletter.