A constitutional amendment relating to the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex will be on the ballot in November, seeking to make some development at the complex compliant with the constitution. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — Local environmental advocates have been doing interviews with journalists around New York, giving presentations to downstate voters and talking to anyone and everyone they can about the statewide proposition on the election ballot this year.

On Nov. 4, voters around the state will have a say on whether existing development at the state-operated winter sports complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg will be brought into compliance with the state Constitution. If it is, the state will buy 2,500 acres of land to add to the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Environmental advocacy groups like Protect the Adirondacks and the Adirondack Council, which support the amendment, are urging voters to approve it. They say it would resolve past Forest Preserve constitutional violations at the sports complex near Lake Placid, ensuring the integrity of the land protections and allowing the state to continue holding sporting events there.

The vote, though mostly only impacting the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex, will be taken by voters statewide, since it amends the state constitution. Protect Executive Director Claudia Braymer said it impacts the Forest Preserve, which belongs to all New Yorkers.

Braymer thinks the amendment will pass, but she’s still a bit concerned it won’t. Not because people oppose it, but because people don’t understand it.

“I’m trying to talk to as many news outlets as possible,” Braymer said. “It seems like not a lot of people know what it’s about, or they’re confused.”

Adirondack Council Communications Director John Sheehan said the language of the amendment on the ballot is “dense,” to put it lightly, and requires some explanation in plain English.

For years, the state Olympic Regional Development Authority has built out the facilities at the 1,039-acre Mount Van Hoevenberg sports complex it owns and operates — including an Olympic bobsled, skeleton and luge track, and Nordic skiing and biathlon trails.

But some of this work — including tree cutting and building construction — has extended into a constitutionally protected Forest Preserve. Some buildings, roads and parking lots straddle the town-state boundary, and there has been tree cutting on the Forest Preserve beyond what is allowed.

The solution the state has settled on is to exempt these 323 acres around the biathlon stadium from the Article 14, the “forever wild” clause of the Constitution, and offset with more land in the park being added to the Forest Preserve.

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Outreach

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ORDA Board Chair Joe Martens said all local green groups support the amendment. He’s hopeful that media around the state will cover the amendment before people start voting.

It is confusing at first glance. To explain the proposition takes a foundation of layers of knowledge. People first need to know what Article 14 is, what ORDA even is, what a constitutional amendment does, what the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex is and what existing development there is.

“I am a little concerned that people don’t understand what it is and the fact that the facilities we’re talking about have already been built,” Braymer said. “Some people are wanting to vote ‘no’ against it, thinking that they can prevent construction from happening.”

But once she explains that the facilities are already there and that the amendment would ensure that the integrity of the “Forever Wild” clause, they tell her they’d approve it. It places restrictions on ORDA for future development at the site and ensures future development is within those restrictions.

“It restricts development at Mount Van Hoevenberg to no more than 323 acres of land for the explicit purpose of Nordic skiing and biathlon trails and related facilities,” Braymer said.

The exemption of these 323 acres from the Forest Preserve would be offset by the purchase of 2,500 acres of land somewhere in the Adirondacks to add to the Forest Preserve, likely in Essex County.

ORDA itself can educate voters about the amendment, but cannot advocate for how to vote on it. ORDA Communications Director Darcy Norfolk Rowe said they’re more “reactive” — responding to requests for information from news outlets like the New York Times and voter groups.

Braymer is putting information out on social media but Protect doesn’t have a budget for paid advertising.

She’s spoken to reporters from The Columbia Paper in Columbia County, Ithaca College’s student newspaper The Ithacan and The Citizen in Auburn. She’s trying to get on the Capitol Pressroom radio show.

Sheehan has been reaching out to news organizations around the state, urging people to vote “yes.” He’s been on public radio stations WAMC in Albany and WNYC in New York City to discuss the amendment. He’s spoken on statewide panels for the League of Women Voters and the League of Conservation Voters and helped the New York City campaign finance board put an explanation of the amendment in its voter guide.

The proposition has been written about in the New York City-based Gothamist. Syracuse.com wrote an editorial telling voters to vote “yes” on the amendment.

Sheehan said the Council gets between six and 12 requests for information on the amendment a day — from reporters, people producing voter guides and voters who got their absentee ballots and were confused by the amendment.

Early voting for the election begins on Saturday.

Braymer prepared a slide show and has given presentations to political groups in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Jay and Lake George, as well as the New York League of Women Voters.

The presentation has photos showing where the biathlon stadium crosses into the Forest Preserve and where there are parking lots on state-owned land. The bobsled run at the complex is all on town land, so it’s not a problem.

There’s confusion over whether this would create a slippery slope and could be applied to other lands. Braymer said it would only apply to the land mentioned in the amendment.

To read the text of the proposal, go to tinyurl.com/4v59xbpk.

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What would happen?

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If the amendment passes, Martens said ORDA would also take 200 acres of existing intensive use area from a remote part of the complex — between a trail and the state wilderness area in the north portion of the land — and reclassify it as wilderness land to add to the Forest Preserve. This is not part of the amendment, but would be done if the amendment passes, he said.

If the amendment passes, some language is added to the state Constitution and some land is added to the Forest Preserve.

If it doesn’t pass …

“That is really going to be a difficult situation, so I hope we don’t end up there,” Braymer said. “Having things that violate the Constitution just sitting on the Forest Preserve is not ideal.”

Martens said it would be a “setback” for ORDA and would stop them from maintaining or improving the parking lots and trails in the area.

Voters also tell Braymer they’re frustrated that they’re only voting on the amendment now, after the development has already happened — she is too.

“It really should have happened the other way around,” Braymer said. “We should have had the amendment get passed (first).”

She said the state agency pushed forward to get ready to host the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games. While making updates to its Mount Van Hoevenberg unit management plan in the run-up to the Games, people realized that some of the developments made since the 1980s already crossed over from town-owned land and extended onto the state Forest Preserve.

Braymer said it makes more sense to amend the Constitution than to undo what is already in place.

“This amendment will ensure that the integrity of Article 14, the ‘Forever Wild’ clause of the Constitution, is respected,” she said.

Ever since Mount Van Hoevenberg’s first Unit Management Plan was created in 1986, nearly every UMP since has noted the need to address the “forever wild” status of the state lands there.

While state-owned ski areas at Whiteface Mountain, Gore Mountain and Belleayre Mountain each have Article 14 amendments authorizing their use, there’s never been a constitutional amendment to explicitly authorize the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex. This amendment would create an authorization similar to these ski areas.

The sports complex was first developed in 1929 with the creation of a bobsled run that was later used in the 1932 Olympics.

“Most of the facility is located on Adirondack Forest Preserve land, which is protected under Article 14 of the New York State Constitution,” Norfolk Rowe said. “Over time, some uses and improvements occurred without required constitutional authorization.”

Norfolk Rowe said the amendment balances Forest Preserve protections with authorized public use, maintains the site as an Olympic legacy venue and allows Mount Van Hoevenberg to legally continue hosting public recreation, as well as national and international trainings and events.

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The amendment

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The amendment was crafted by state employees, legislators, green groups and ORDA itself.

To amend Article 14 of the state Constitution like this takes a long process. Both houses of the state legislature needed to pass the proposed amendment in two consecutive legislative sessions. The proposed amendment passed in the 2023-24 session, and then again in June of this year.

Now, it goes to state voters and requires a simple majority to be ratified.

An enabling legislation also passed both houses. This bill makes sure the amendment is implemented correctly. It is currently waiting on the signature of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

It details what the land at the sports complex can and cannot be used for. Banned uses include hotels, condominiums, zip lines, swimming pools, tennis courts, all-terrain vehicle use or paths for the public and “other structures and improvements which are not directly related to and necessary for operation, maintenance and public use of the sports complex; or any structure located at or above an elevation of 2,200 feet above sea level used for the sale of any goods, services, merchandise, food or beverage.”

To view the corresponding concurrent enabling resolution, visit tinyurl.com/3dpmjsu4. To view the concurrent resolution that proposes a state constitutional amendment, visit tinyurl.com/6mdyb4n4.

Former North Country Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, and downstate Sen. Pete Harckham, D-South Salem, introduced the Constitutional Amendment (S.5227/A.7454) and the enabling legislation (S.6888/A.3628) in their respective houses. North Country state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, co-sponsored the senate legislation.