DEC Withdraws Gore Mountain Plan Approval;
Acknowledges Relationship between Impacts of Ski Area
Improvements and Private Development
DEC Commissioner Commits to new Environmental Impact Assessment to Evaluate Connection and Cumulative Impacts of Gore Mountain Ski Area Expansion and Large Private Resort Development
North Creek, NY — Two Adirondack conservation organizations are applauding Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Denise Sheehan's recent decision to withdraw her approval of state-owned Gore Mountain Ski Area's expansion that would directly benefit a Connecticut developer's plans for building over 200 condominiums, houses, hotel rooms and townhouses, a restaurant and other intense development in the "Ski Bowl Park" in North Creek.
The Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks (RCPA) and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks had argued in front of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) that the state had failed to acknowledge the relationship of proposed new statesponsored ski lifts and trails with lands now owned by the Town of Johnsburg, which the town proposes to transfer to the private developer. The proposed luxury private resort development would be interspersed between new trails and lifts which would be constructed and maintained at taxpayer expense as they are to be built and managed by the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA).
Furthermore, the groups argued that the environmental impacts of the new ski facilities on these lands had not been studied, nor had the impacts of the proposed private development been factored into the state's management planning for adjoining Forest Preserve lands, including Gore Mountain.
After the state decided to approve the Gore Mountain Unit Management Plan without any additional studies, the Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks and local attorney John Caffry filed a lawsuit, arguing that the state improperly failed to review the Gore Mountain project and the private development in tandem, therefore illegally segmenting the environmental studies and failing to assess their cumulative impacts. The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is supporting the suit and has taken steps to intervene in the proceeding.
Apparently, DEC Commissioner Sheehan agreed with the groups. On July 12, 2006 she wrote: "Due to the fact that the proposed Ski Bowl Village project would be adjacent and/or near to the Gore Mountain Intensive Use Area and is related to the proposed ski trails and lifts on presently privately-owned land and town-owned land connecting Gore Mountain with the historic Ski Bowl, I have directed my staff to conduct a supplemental SEQRA review of the impacts associated with these connecting ski trails and lifts in conjunction with the proposed Ski Bowl Village Project." The Commissioner specifically rescinded her permission to build new ski lifts 12 and 14 and new trails 12-b through 12-j in the Unit Management Plan. The now-disapproved lifts include a gondola that would have connected the two ski areas.
"It's clear to everybody that state funds are being used to enrich a private resort developer," said RCPA executive director Peter Bauer. "This is wrong. Thankfully now the DEC will ensure that the APA and ORDA look at the full scope and impacts of this project. It's very important that a full range of potential impacts are evaluated."
"Coordinated, comprehensive environmental review of closely-related, interdependent development projects like these in the Adirondack Park should be the rule. Unfortunately, in recent years it has become the exception. Therefore, we applaud Commissioner Sheehan's rational and logical decision to review these projects together," says the Association's executive director David Gibson.
"It is unfortunate that the State refused to assess the adverse impacts of one of the largest condo projects ever proposed in the Adirondack Park before deciding to subsidize it with millions of dollars in trail and lift construction on State Forest Preserve lands, particularly when there are so many pressing land stewardship needs in the Forest Preserve, including at Gore Mountain itself. DEC is to be commended for deciding to step back and reconsider this action," said John Caffry, who is legal counsel to the groups in the case and is also a co-petitioner in the lawsuit.
The Adirondack Park Agency will be reviewing the private land use application for the Ski Bowl Village in the coming months. The application remains incomplete at the present time. The DEC decision means that DEC will have to take the APA's environmental review into account before it reconsiders the lift and trail connections between Gore Mountain and the Ski Bowl near North Creek.
The groups believe that the APA and ORDA should likewise reconsider and revise their decisions to approve this project without proper environmental review.
The Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks is a privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the stewardship and protection of the natural environment and human communities of the Adirondack Park for current and future generations. The RCPA pursues this mission through advocacy, education, legal action, sustainable forestry certification, research, water quality monitoring and grassroots organizing. The RCPA has 3,800 household members and maintains an office in North Creek.
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is a non-profit organization founded in 1901 to employ public education, citizen action, public and private partnerships and strong advocacy to protect, enhance, and sustain the wild character, ecological integrity, and mutual well-being of the natural and human communities of the Adirondack region. The Association's Center for the Forest Preserve in Niskayuna serves as an Adirondack research library and learning center.