APA Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs John Burth presents at the agency’s headquarters in Ray Brook on Thursday on why APA staff are recommending the board vote to send the proposed howitzer testing range in the town of Lewis to an adjudicatory hearing. The board is expected to vote on that today. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

RAY BROOK — The Adirondack Park Agency Board appears slated to send the proposed howitzer artillery weapons testing range in the town of Lewis to an adjudicatory hearing.

The APA board’s four-person regulatory committee voted unanimously to recommend doing so on Thursday. The motion will now come before the full 11-member board today, with a majority vote needed to complete the action. Today’s APA meeting is set to begin at 9 a.m. with state land committee business up first on the agenda.

The full board is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. — where it will presumably vote on the howitzer project — though times are approximate.

The project proposes that a portable 155 mm howitzer assembly barrel be placed on a 100-foot by 100-foot crushed gravel pad and fire steel projectiles into a target area. The proposal calls for the assembly to be fired up to 30 times per year on weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The projectiles are proposed to be stopped by an 8-foot by 8-foot by 40-foot-long metal shipping container, or similar structure, filled with sand and other material. No explosive warheads are proposed to be fired.

The public meeting will be held in person at the agency’s Ray Brook headquarters. People can also watch remotely at tinyurl.com/APANov2025Fri. The passcode to join is 697083. Per APA policy, public comments are not allowed for any project before the agency at that meeting, given the window for public written comments in advance.

The regulatory committee’s vote came after about an hour-long presentation on the project by John Burth, the APA’s deputy director of regulatory programs. Burth laid out the various reasons why APA staff felt the project should be sent to an adjudicatory hearing, which the agency hasn’t done since 2011.

The reasons, in short, included the project’s size and complexity, public interest, significant issues for approval, potential for major modifications or conditions, assistance from a hearing and the extent of public involvement by other means.

The project’s applicant is Michael Hopmeier of Unconventional Concepts, Inc. He is represented by attorney Matthew Norfolk of Norfolk Beier PLLC. The project was first proposed in 2021, though APA staff sent various notices of application incompletion. It was considered complete by agency staff in September.