APA under scrutiny, under fire

The Adirondack Park Agency board meets today in Ray Brook to debate some thorny issues, ranging from cell phone towers to the use of a chemical herbicide to battle invasive weeds.

You can watch the proceedings live here.

But the items on the agenda may not be half so thorny as the mood surrounding the Agency.

After achieving a certain amount of credibility a few years ago, the regulatory body finds itself under heavy fire.

Local government critics are questioning the APA’s priorities on cell phone construction, an problem which the state thought it had fixed. (Read the Plattsburgh Press-Republican’s coverage here.)

The Glens Falls Post Star continues to come at the Agency hard on its influential editorial page, calling for the body to be dissolved and suggesting that “awkward attempts at contrition are a little difficult to believe.”

Meanwhile, the APA faces a growing raft of litigation from both sides:

Environmentalists are demanding that the state designate the water of Lows Lake as wilderness.

Property rights activists are hoping to prove in court that those same green groups exert too much influence over APA decisions.

Still not enough excitement for you?

Governor David Paterson has appointed Peter Hornbeck, a respected Adirondack businessman who is also one of the most prominent environmental leaders.

(He led the Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks at a time when that group became a lightning rod for local government ire.)

Senator Betty Little is fighting hard to have Hornbeck’s name withdrawn, arguing that three former environmental leaders already sit on the APA board.

In the midst of all this melodrama, chairman Curt Stiles is wrestling with what look to be deep cuts to his staff and the likely closure of the APA’s two visitor interpretive centers.

He’s also trying to shepherd forward reform legislation in Albany, along with controversial regulatory changes at APA headquarters in Ray Brook.

Stiles has described all this churn as a healthy part of doing the hard work necessary to protect the Adirondacks during hard economic times.

But the APA’s critics clearly aim to capitalize on this moment, hoping to emerge from the turmoil with an Agency that has a much narrower mandate and much more local input.