New York’s plan for open space purchases in the Adirondacks

Governor David Paterson is proposing an open-ended moratorium on new land purchases of state land in the Adirondack Park.

It’s part of his massive budget-cutting plan and not a response to the simmering feud over conservation efforts inside the blue line.

But the moratorium idea has played into the North Country debate. A growing number of lawmakers say the time-out should be used to develop a plan for land acquisitions.

In fact, such a plan already exists:

The New York State Open Space Conservation Plan is updated every three years, based on a lot of public comment and input.

Interestingly, the 2009 revision hinted at a pull-back on new land acquisitions and made it clear that budget constraints would reshape the state’s land-purchase agenda.

The document also shifts attention to environmental goals — dealing with water quality and climate change, for example — rather than simply acquiring big parcels.

There is a lot in this document already about promoting sustainable communities inside the Adirondack Park.

And there’s a lot of detail about which parcels in the Park the state is still interested in buying. (Scroll down to pg. 90 for those details.)

Whether those purchases should go forward is open for debate, especially now that the state is mired in debt, with few resources available for stewardship.

But one thing is certain: The state has made its intentions clear. A plan exists, formed with tons of inputs from locals. (The document includes a list of all the participants.)