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Relocation of APA to 1-3 Main St., Saranac Lake

I am one of the many people in our broader community who strongly oppose the proposed re-location of the Adirondack Park Agency’s headquarters to downtown Saranac Lake. I outlined my reasons in two letters to Gov. Hochul — in May 2023 and on April 4 this year.

My last letter, printed below, focuses largely on the disruptive effect that the APA proposal is having on the very important matter of providing improved facilities for the village’s emergency services (police, fire, ambulance/rescue).

In the six months since I last wrote to the governor, I have received no acknowledgement or substantive reply. And, over the past six months, we have encountered complete silence from the Adirondack Park Agency which, in the past, has been chastised for failing to listen to or consider the views and concerns of residents of the Adirondack Park.

I trust that sharing my April 4 letter to Gov. Hochul will be helpful in the ongoing discussion of how Saranac Lake should move forward, and in helping to redirect the Adirondack Park Agency toward more productive efforts on behalf of the Park and its communities.

Dear Governor Hochul:

I wrote to you on May 16, 2023 to state my reasons for opposing Executive Director Barb Rice’s proposal to build a new APA headquarters on a prime local government / private sector development site in downtown Saranac Lake. In the months which followed, additional factors have further revealed why this is a bad idea. Among them is the Village’s ongoing effort to determine how to best provide for the pressing space needs of Saranac Lake’s emergency service providers (Police, Fire & Ambulance/Rescue). Elected local leaders need to determine what new and/or reusable structures can best meet local needs at a cost that is affordable to the taxpayers of this relatively small community. The initial proposal for a consolidated facility, now under discussion, is oversized and so costly that its required level of bonding is unlikely to survive an inevitable permissive referendum.

The Park Agency has unfortunately insinuated itself in this critically important infrastructure planning effort by proposing to relocate to the site currently occupied by our local Police Department. This has only made the local facility planning process more difficult. Village leaders, with minimal public input, have abandoned the idea of allowing the Police Department to expand in the historic structure that it currently occupies because of a mistaken understanding of the potential benefits of having the APA on that site. And unfortunately, the Village’s tentative arrangement with the Agency has caused it to abandon the idea of constructing a service road with direct access to NYS Route 3 from its proposed emergency service facility on Petrova Avenue. There is concern for the appearance of impropriety since that critically needed access would require the Village to obtain a Freshwater Wetlands Permit from the APA. The wetlands permit application, and the subsequent review and approval process could give rise to the appearance of a “quid-quo-pro” since the Village is allowing the Agency to use its 1-3 Main Street site. With this change, emergency service vehicles will now need to travel through local streets in a quiet residential neighborhood which includes a school zone. As you know, the Agency is supposed to support sound local planning, not make it more difficult.

The proposed move to downtown Saranac Lake increasingly appears to be a vanity project for the Agency’s current executive director. As reported, a majority of the current APA staff oppose it along with a significant number of retired APA staff, many of whom served in senior management positions. I also know that you have heard about this from past Agency members who have served with distinction in previous administrations.

Proponents, opponents, and the interested public should be given ample opportunity to both hear from the Agency about this relocation proposal and to make comments on the record in a public forum. Noting that the Agency has been publicly criticized in the recent past for not allowing sufficient opportunities for public input, it must not be allowed to proceed with this proposal without transparency and accountability. In late 2023, an important good-government organization in Saranac Lake requested a public forum without having taken a position on the Agency’s proposed move. It was told by Director Rice that this could occur in January 2024. This did not happen. It is now early April and the Agency’s engagement with the public is long overdue.

I respectfully urge you to require the Park Agency to host a public forum if this proposed relocation truly has the support of “the 2nd Floor.” If not, please direct the Agency and the Office of General Services to immediately focus attention on planning a badly needed new APA headquarters at the State Office Building Campus in Ray Brook.

A new APA headquarters on State administrative land in Ray Brook would be consistent with the language of both the Adirondack Park Private Land Use and Development Plan and the State Land Master Plan. The announcement of this development in Ray Brook would eliminate Agency interference with critically important facility planning by the Village of Saranac Lake. And, the elimination of the prospect of the Agency’s relocation would help reduce tension among the Agency’s hardworking staff and help rebuild New Yorkers’ confidence in the Adirondack Park Agency.

Sincerely,

Stephen M. Erman

(Steve Erman is a resident of the Village of Saranac Lake. He served for 28 years as special assistant for economic affairs at the Adirondack Park Agency from 1982 to 2010. He is a past president of the Adirondack North Country Association and a former board member of the Franklin County Economic Development Corporation.)

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