Essex farmer Sandy Lewis prevails again in APA fight

Essex County farmer and former Wall Street executive Salim “Sandy” Lewis won another round in court yesterday.

According to an article in the New York Times, a state judge has ordered the Adirondack Park Agency to pay all of Lewis’s legal fees and expenses following a lengthy court fight.

Mr. Lewis has asked for more than $200,000 in legal fees, but the amount that the state will actually have to pay is to be determined. Judge Richard B. Meyer, an acting State Supreme Court justice, set a hearing on the issue for Feb. 26.

The Times article quotes APA spokesman Keith McKeever, who said, “We’re reviewing [the decision], and we’re definitely disappointed.”

The Park Agency claimed during protracted litigation that farm worker housing on Lewis’s land violated the state’s subdivision rules in the Adirondacks.

Lewis — and supporters in the farm community — argued that worker housing is an exempted agricultural activity.

Last July, a state appeals court affirmed Lewis’s position on a unanimous vote.

The case has been a public-relations nightmare for the agency.

Last year, the APA’s top enforcement attorney handling the case, Paul Van Cott, emailed Lewis, calling him a “sociopath.”

Van Cott was later reassigned.

Lewis has since emerged as a prominent anti-APA activist, supporting other legal challenges against the Agency.