Preserve Associates are proposing to develop the former Big Tupper Ski Area into the “Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR).” The development will cover 6,400 acres including the Oval Wood Dish (OWD) lands and include approximately 700 living units. Twenty-four of these units would be "great camp lots" consisting of 50 or more acres each. In addition, the mega-proposal includes ridgeline development, a shooting school, and the revitalization of the existing local ski slope. This project is one of the largest real estate development schemes ever to come before the Adirondack Park Agency for approval.

Click here to see a map of the proposed development.

The Council will be dedicating significant conservation and advocacy staff time toward this project in the coming two months. The first major hurdle was to ensure that the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) conducts a thorough legal review of the project through an Adjudicatory Hearing.

Read excerpts from project reviews by the APA staff and the Hudson Group, LLC, an independent consultant reviewing the project on behalf of the Town of Tupper Lake.

The following information is detailed, providing you with specifics related to the Council's concerns about this project.

In its final meeting before Governor Pataki left office, the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) announced that they would initiate the 60 day public review process which will culminate in the issuance of a permit for the massive Adirondack Club and Resort project or a decision to send the project to an Adjudicatory Hearing.

The Adirondack Council firmly supports the Town of Tupper Lake's desire to reopen the ski area, revitalize the downtown, encourage economic development, and maintain its working forest. But
this project would not accomplish these goals. Instead, it will have the opposite effect. The Council's principal concerns are fragmentation of the backcountry and disruption of wildlife habitat, negative impacts to water quality, and visual impacts from upland development.

Impacts on the Park
Backcountry Fragmentation
The "great camp lots" will fragment hundreds of acres of intact forest lands with roads, driveways
and houses. Recent studies by the Wildlife Conservation Society explain the negative impacts of rural sprawl in the Adirondacks and the need to reduce the impacts of large lot subdivisions across the private forests of the entire Park. None of the proposed development would be in the Village of Tupper Lake, use existing infrastructure or help its downtown financially.

Upland Development
Approximately 700 housing units are planned near the ski area on the steep slopes and shallow
soils of Mt. Morris. This high number of units will require the removal of hundreds of acres of trees, increase soil erosion, and degrade water quality in nearby lakes. The units will also be highly visible for miles during both day and night.

Water Quality
The project proposes two community sewage treatment plants to serve the development. One plant would discharge over 10,000 gallons a day of chemically treated effluent into Cranberry Pond, once used as a Tupper Lake reservoir. This same water body will also be used to supply water to snow-making machines on the ski slopes, forever altering its natural ecosystem. The second sewage treatment plant will discharge additional thousands of gallons of effluent into Lake Simond, where local residents with homes on the lake recently made costly upgrades to their individual septic systems to improve this shallow lake's water quality.

Financing
Due to the financial risk related to second home and condo developments around small ski areas such as Big Tupper, the Preserve Associates have not yet attracted major financial backing. Their hope is to secure the project permits from the APA, and then request that the Franklin County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) provide $54 million in private long-term bonds that will be paid back through the sales of the homes and condos. In addition, the developer hopes that the Town of Tupper Lake will approve a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) for the first ten years to alleviate the property tax burdens on the developer and buyers. The Adirondack Council would support IDA
bonds for public benefit such as refurbishing the ski-slope and revitalizing the Village of Tupper Lake, but finds it difficult to agree that IDA bonds should be used to finance a high-end second home resort.

Public Hearings
On January 10, the APA held a Legislative Hearing on the ACR project. This hearing was a venue for citizens, organizations, and other concerned parties to comment on all aspects of the proposal.
While this is a good start, the Council believes a larger, more informative hearing must be held before a decision on a project of this magnitude can be made. According to APA policy, in order to modify a proposal at the APA, a formal, courtroom style Adjudicatory Hearing is necessary. The Adirondack Park Agency staff's recently recommended that the project be sent to an adjudicatory hearing. The Commissioners took the correct action at the Agency meeting in February and voted to send the ACR project to adjudicatory hearing.

At the Adjudicatory Hearing, intricate details of such complex projects are investigated. Issues to be heard before an Administrative Law Judge are determined. Expert witnesses, including wildlife biologists, landscape architects, and hydrologists testify on the project design. Following the testimony of experts and the project applicant, and after examining a great deal of documentation, the Agency staff will make a recommendation on how the APA should move forward with the proposed project.

The Adjudicatory Hearing process will be a vital step in ensuring that any development allowed as part of the ACR proposal is appropriate for the scope and character of the existing community, does not negatively impact the environment, and does not put a heavy financial burden on year-round residents of Tupper Lake.