Adirondack Council says it has a “direct mandate” to make sure Big Tupper resort gets a permit
I’ve had a lot of questions about something that Brian Houseal, head of the Adirondack Council, said in this morning’s story about the Adirondack Club and Resort project. Here’s his quote:
The Adirondack Council has a large board of 25 people so obviously there’s a diversity of viewpoints about this project in Tupper Lake.
But my mandate from the board — and it was a consensus mandate — is to get a permit with conditions from the APA so that this project meets the APA standard of no undue adverse impact, but also a project that will benefit the economy of Tupper Lake.
So I have a direct mandate from the board to go forward and make sure this project gets a permit.
In an interview — more of which will air sometime next week — Houseal still raised concerns about several environmental issues with the resort, dealing with road design, wastewater management and forest fragmentation.
But he made it clear that he thought those would be resolved as part of the final adjudicatory hearing process, which is now set to resume.
I asked ACR developer Michael Foxman about Houseal’s position at a meeting Wednesday night in Tupper Lake. He said the Adirondack Council had communicated to him their desire for a permit.
I’ve heard from Brian, exactly what you did. I believe him. I’m sure that at some point they’ll ask for something I really don’t like. But I think what Brian said is true.
Asked about the environmental community’s less vocal opposition to the resort, Foxman added this:
I think that if they had their druthers some [environmentalists] would be opposed to all development without regard to its merit.
Some [green groups] are perhaps more concerned with the people who live in the Park.
Some of them are probably reacting to the fact that it would be very unpopular to come out and kill an economic opportunity that would create so many jobs and do so much for a community that desperately needs it.
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Uh, the Adirondack Council runs the APA that issues the permits??? Sounds like some of the rumors of undue influence may have merit.
I do believe Brian H. He’s pretty straight up. I do believe “the times are a changing,” perhaps largely due to the work at Common Ground and the simple fact that the economy sucks.
call me a skeptic
whenever i read the councils edicts on cooperation i remember the opinion of former APA and DEC commissioner Robert Flacke as quoted in the Glens Falls POST STAR 5/3/10 “Te Adirondack Council has a propensity to lie to get everything they want”
is this a sign of of “Common ground”? …. i doubt it
Time will tell if the Council’s actions match their press release or that this is just another example of greenie “rope- a- dope” ( younger readers consult Muhammad Ali)
Tom Sciacca, Tupper Lake
Does no one else have an issue with the tone of the Adk Councils assertion it can simply assure a permit is issued? I’m troubled by this and the implication what they say will give the issuing agency (the APA I believe) the thumbs up or down!
Development that can accomplish economic contributions -including employment- locally and regionally, with minimal environmental degredation, is what it’s all about. Yes, that means strict controls. If it’s not cost effective, it won’t happen. When that sort of development can happen, it will spur telecommuting, a rise in employment and local prosperity, and a broader spectrum of people who come to know that the way of life in the Adirondacks can last for more than a week. Tourism and prisons are not a way to sustain and grow the economy in the Adirondacks.
Sustainable ‘blue-green’ jobs ARE coming to ‘Back to the Dacks’, stay tuned, AKDBREWCO.
Brian,
I agree with Bret here. You should have followed up by asking why it is that the Council has given Houseal a mandate to “make sure this project gets a permit”. What a strange thing to say? I assume that the board more often gives Houseal a mandate to make sure that a project does not get a permit. Or the board give Houseal a mandate to make sure that a project is stopped by an enforcement action? The whole thing sounds a little weird to me. There is no doubt that the Adirondack Council has more influence on the APAs’ actions than by some other groups, whether that is undue is a different question.
This is a good example I think of why Brian’s idea of having the APA act in some form to steer economic development is probably not such a good idea. This is a project where there could be lots of conflicts in that regard.
Paul, it seems no one else is bothered by the apparent influence the Adk Council wields. We should remember this the next time some odd decision flies through APA approval.
The Adirondack Council seems to be a group that “environmental moderates” (such as me) should get behind. Its nice that there’s some middle ground between the nuts on the left who oppose private land ownership and any and all development, and the nuts on the right who want to abolish the APA and view the Forest Preserve as a millstone around their necks.
What’s wrong with a citizen’s group having a lot of influence? Don’t we want the government to be responsive?
My parents remember sitting in on an APA meeting where the citizens of an Adirondack community were encouraged to “rat each other out” to the APA for assumed violations. This I found eerily reminiscent of the paranoia found in NAZI Germany back in the 40s where folks were encouraged to turn in their neighbors for alleged crimes.
Jay – Oh, come on. Sheesh. Nazis? Really?
–Brian, NCPR