This design sketch for the Tupper LAke Crossroads hotel makes it look similar to the village's Iroquois hotel, which was destroyed by fire many years ago. (Image provided)

There’s good news coming out of Tupper Lake these days. It appears that the Adirondack Club and Resort, slated to occupy some 6,000 acres around the base of Mount Morris, may be on the way out. If so, this leaves the door open for the kind of second-home development that respects its natural setting rather than a project like the ACR, which fosters costly and destructive rural sprawl.

Why was the ACR not right for its site? Because it would have mistreated thousands of acres of recovering woodlands by subdividing much of the property into “great camp lots” ranging from 25 to 128 acres in size. The ACR scheme violated the principles of modern conservation design, where buildings are clustered to preserve open space, wildlife habitat and natural beauty.

The term “clustering,” however, can be misleading. It doesn’t mean that houses are crowded together. In this case, given the vast acreage that ACR has to work with, the so-called great camps could have been concentrated on lots of up to 5 acres on one portion of the land. This arrangement would ensure complete privacy for the homeowners. The rest of the land — more than 5,000 acres — would be kept in continuous, intact open space. The preserved area could be held in common by those who buy into the subdivision. In this way, everyone wins: the human residents along with the birds and other creatures that live there.

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Designing with nature

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The Adirondack experiment is all about human beings existing in harmony with nature instead of conquering and dominating their surroundings. This a rare achievement in today’s over-developed world, but one that the Adirondack Park has come to exemplify.

Now Tupper Lake has the chance to show how a residential development can be done right by incorporating conservation design, making the project profitable for the developer, beneficial for the village, and respectful of the natural world. Assuming that the ACR plan fails to materialize, this Oval Wood Dish property could be sensitively developed by someone else, with 90 percent of it kept as a contiguous block of preserved, undeveloped land. A number of highly marketable homes could be sited on the remaining 10 percent of the property.

Consider what such a development would offer prospective buyers. For natural and cultural amenities, this upscale, second-home community would have it all.

Want to commune with nature? Enjoy the trails winding through the thousands of preserved acres.

Like to play golf? There’s access to a municipal golf course in your front yard. Like to go paddling, fishing and boating? You’re next door to Tupper Lake, one of the Park’s most beautiful and peaceful waterbodies in the Adirondacks. Ditto with the enchanting Raquette River, also in your front yard.

Want a wilderness experience? Go paddling on the Bog River, Lows Lake or Little Tupper Lake, all nearby.

Like to ski? You’ve got a downhill ski center just minutes away. Cross-country skiing? Right out your front door. Like to hike? Go for an easy mountain jaunt on nearby Arab, Goodman, Coney and, of course, your very own Mount Morris.

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Bicycling for all ages

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Like to bike? The Adirondack Rail Trail will soon be connecting Tupper Lake, Lake Clear, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid — offering 34 miles of scenic, traffic-free bicycling. As wild and picturesque as this trail will be, it will also be suited to cyclists of all ages and abilities because it will be constructed on a historic (and level) railroad bed.

Want a beach? Hang out at Little Wolf Pond, a short bike ride away.

Looking to increase your knowledge and enjoyment of the Adirondacks? Visit the Wild Center — aka Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks — on the other side of the village. It’s the best introduction to the natural wonders of the Adirondacks that you could ask for.

Down the road in Blue Mountain Lake you have the Adirondack Museum, which offers total immersion in the human history of the Adirondacks. This cultural treasure is on a par with the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., with the added advantage of a spectacular lake-and-mountain setting.

Want to check out the stars? Visit the Adirondack Public Observatory in Tupper Lake, now open to visitors after many years in the making.

To top things off, a great-looking hotel has been proposed for Tupper’s downtown area. According to a recently released plan, the hotel will be located at the crossroads of New York 3 and 30. It will be three stories high and contain 30 to 40 rooms, a spacious indoor pool, conference center, restaurant and rooftop veranda. Just what the doctor ordered!

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New era for Tupper

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This friendly village, in a lovely part of the Adirondacks, has been largely overlooked since its heyday as a center of logging and lumbering. That era ended long ago, but a new era is now upon us. Thanks to a spurt of encouraging developments, including the likely demise of the Adirondack Club and Resort, Tupper Lake is shaping up as demonstration model, showing how we can capitalize on our natural blessings and small-town attributes to the benefit of everyone involved.

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Dick Beamish is a resident of Saranac Lake and founder of the Adirondack Explorer magazine.