Protect the Adirondacks supports a proposed Article 14 Constitutional Amendment for the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex outside Lake Placid. At the Mt. Van Hoevenberg complex, the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) currently manages around 1,270 acres of Forest Preserve classified as Intensive Use by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). Abutting these lands is 319 acres of land owned by the Town of North Elba. Together this complex houses the Olympic bobsled and luge track, cross-country skiing and biathlon trails, and associated facilities, with most of the intensive buildings and facilities located on the town lands. However, over the years, some of the nordic skiing facilities have been constructed on the State Forest Preserve lands, likely in violation of the New York State Constitution.
The Constitutional Amendment (sponsored by Senator Harckham and Assemblyman Jones; S.5227/A.7454) would be authorize the State to use up to 323 acres of 1,039 acres in the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex for a variety of winter sports activities and facilities, including trails, buildings, water lines, and parking lots, among other structures or facilities. The amendment would exempt the state from tree-cutting standards applicable to the Forest Preserve. Through an Article 14 amendment, the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex would be governed by distinct terms, just as the downhill ski areas at Whiteface Mountain, Gore Mountain, and Belleayre Mountain have been regulated by amendments.
The amendment would compensate the Forest Preserve by requiring the State to purchase at least 2,500 acres of new lands to add to the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
These pictures show the side and front of the visitors building at the Mount Van Hoevenberg Winter Sports Complex.
The lands of the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex, spanning across lands owned by the town and the state, is partly the result of two famous NYS Constitution, Article 14, Section 1, legal decisions in 1930, one by the Appellate Division, Third Department, and the other by the New York Court of Appeals, that struck down plans by the State of New York to build a bobsled track on Forest Preserve lands at this location. This decision forced the state to build the bobsled track for the 1932 Winter Olympic Games on lands owned by the Town of North Elba.
Since then, the State of New York has placed much of the buildings and other facilities on town lands, but in the intervening decades the state has also undertaken a number of questionable actions on the Forest Preserve at the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex that clearly violate Article 14, Section 1. For instance, there are buildings that straddle the Town-State boundary. There are paved roads that are connected on Town-State lands. There are parking lots that straddle the Town-State boundary. There has been tree cutting on the Forest Preserve in excess of constitutional limits, as established in case law. Many of these violations pre-date the formation of ORDA in the mid-1980s, but others have occurred during ORDA’s stewardship, most recently in preparation for the 2023 World University Games.
Part of the nordic skiing facilities used during the World University Games in 2023
This proposed Constitutional Amendment states:
“the construction, operation, and maintenance to international standards for Nordic skiing and biathlon trails will accommodate global competitions, training and events, totaling not more than three hundred twenty-three acres of trails and appurtenances thereto, is authorized on one thousand thirty-nine acres of forest preserve lands at the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex” in Lake Placid, and “as an offset thereto the state much acquire for incorporation into the forest preserve at least two thousand five hundred acres of forest land” in the Adirondack Park.
This proposed amendment is accompanied by enabling legislation (S.6888/A.3628) that provides important details about the implementation of the Constitutional Amendment. The enabling legislation specifies that the State can use up to 323 acres of the 1,039 acres in the Mount Van Hoevenberg Winter Sports Complex for the construction, operation and maintenance of Nordic skiing and biathlon trails and a stadium for training, competition and world class events, and necessary facilities such as access roads, parking lots, offices, lodges and snowmaking equipment. The enabling legislation sets forth what types of facilities would not be allowed (e.g., hotels, swimming pools, zip lines).
A section of cross-country ski trail.
Even though this Constitutional Amendment is being passed “after-the-fact”, it remedies the past violations of Article 14, Section 1, and it lays out the parameters for future management of Mount Van Hoevenberg.
It’s important to note that in addition to the Mount Van Hoevenberg Winter Sports Complex, ORDA also manages three alpine downhill ski areas owned by the State of New York – Gore Mountain and Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack Park and Belleayre Mountain in the Catskill Park. Each of these ski areas is built on Forest Preserve and is governed by an Article 14, Section 1 amendment that sets parameters while also enabling management activities and upgrades to keep these facilities consistent with changes in the sport of alpine downhill skiing. Whiteface Mountain was approved in 1941 and 1987. Gore Mountain and Belleayre Mountain were approved in 1947.
At all three of these ski areas, the state is allowed to build and operate facilities that would otherwise be prohibited on the Forest Preserve, subject to specific limits in the constitutional amendments. Since taking over the management of these facilities, ORDA has successfully operated them within the bounds set by these amendments. However, the nonconforming state facilities at Mt. Van Hoevenberg are not expressly authorized, nor are they subject to constitutional limits, like the other three facilities. This proposed amendment would help to right historical wrongs.
Cross country ski trail with snowmaking equipment.
Therefore, we support the Constitutional Amendment for the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex similar to those in effect for Whiteface, Gore, and Belleayre. Such an amendment would create clear lines for future administration while providing a measure of flexibility for future growth. The current expansion of the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex, and the vast amount of state spending there, demand that action be taken to bring this facility into compliance with the Forever Wild clause. At this point, the only way to accomplish this is to pass an amendment.
With “first passage” already completed in 2023, it is important that “second passage” take place in 2025 before Legislators finish the Legislative year in June. Once “second passage” takes place in the Legislature, the Constitutional Amendment will go to the voters in November for a vote on whether to amend the Constitution. We urge voters to say yes.
