Adirondack Club and Resort

A large-scale resort proposed for the Tupper Lake ski area threatens to fragment the forested landscape above pristine Tupper Lake, Lake Simond and the Raquette River.  PROTECT supports a project that revitalizes the ski area while clustering a smaller resort development around the base of Mt Morris and other pre-existing amenities.  The current proposal to scatter 650 building lots and resort facilities over several thousand acres would spoil the area’s vaunted scenery.  During a recent Adirondack Park Agency hearing over the ACR proposal, our board members voiced several concerns in addition to scenic degradation:

  • Rather than employing a true conservation design that would cluster development, the resort proposal threatens sensitive wetlands and large expanses of forest used for generations by hunters, fishermen and foresters.
  • The cumulative effects of large and numerous building lots will result in excessive erosion. This will adversely effect on the water quality in several nearby waterbodies. Of major concern are the proposed 31 lots that average 25-acres; eight of them 100-acres or more. Also, nearly 100-acres could be cleared for 39 “great camp” lots alone.
  • The heavy focus on creating a secluded club atmosphere by selling lots scattered over many acres represents a highly speculative venture in light of today’s dismal real estate and resort development sales. If the developer fails to sell enough lots and the project goes bankrupt, there are no guarantees that the taxpayers of Tupper Lake will not be left to pay the cost of maintaining the new roads and other infrastructure.
  • The applicant has refused to propose an alternative “conservation design” plan for the project, which would minimize its impacts.
  • Sewage effluent will discharge into a waterway that drains into Cranberry Pond.
  • The applicant proposes to withdraw the ski area’s snowmaking water from this fragile wetland and pond area, without first studying the potential impacts to the fishery and ecology of the pond.

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