December 17, 2014
Statement from Protect the Adirondacks and the Sierra Club on Denial of Motion for Leave to Appeal by the NYS Court of Appeals to challenge the Appellate Division, Third Department decision to uphold the Adirondack Park Agency’s Approval of the Adirondack Club & Resort Project
The NYS Court of Appeals has rejected a motion for leave to appeal by Protect the Adirondacks, the Sierra Club and a neighboring landowner to challenge the 2012 approval by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) for the 6,000-acre Adirondack Club & Resort (ACR) project in Tupper Lake. The NYS Appellate Division, Third Department upheld the APA’s approval in July 2014. PROTECT and the Sierra Club are disappointed by this decision and believe that the ACR subdivision does not conform to the development standards administered by the APA.
This lawsuit primarily focused on the approval by the APA of 80 “Great Camp” lots spread widely throughout 4,700-acres classified as Resource Management under the APA Act. The court’s decision did not examine the failure of the APA to uphold the APA Act’s limits on development of lands classified as Resource Management.
This decision sets a ruinous precedent that will negatively impact hundreds of thousands of acres classified as Resource Management across the Adirondack Park. A new 1,100-acre subdivision currently underway in the southern Adirondacks uses a design similar to the ACR project of far flung building lots connected by roads and power lines. The decisions of the APA and the courts appear to have opened the floodgates for much more of this type of destructive development throughout the Adirondacks.
PROTECT and the Sierra Club will continue to monitor the ACR project as it moves forward. The project needs permits from the Department of Environmental Conservation, US Army Corp of Engineers, approval by the NYS Attorney General, and funding approval by the Franklin County Industrial Development Agency.
