Letter to the editor - Ad'k Council supports smart development
February 6, 2015
Adirondack Daily Enterprise
To the editor:
The future of the Adirondack Park - its globally unique and valuable clean water, clean air and wild forests, and its 130 communities and its economy - is not secure. That's why we support a better more resilient Park with economically and environmentally sustainable hamlets, healthier communities, and improved preservation of clean water, wildlife and wilderness.
The Adirondack Council supports, for example, the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the Hotel Saranac, which once was the anchor of downtown attraction. State and private financial support for a modernization and expansion make sense. Best of all, the new investment and construction will happen in an existing community, not miles into the woods.
The Hotel Saranac project is an example of the type of community-focused economic activity that we support. We can support projects in communities, including those that address the need for clean water and wastewater infrastructure, and world-class tourism infrastructure needs. We support coordination with and respect for local planning and zoning authority.
We also embrace an initiative to develop updated Adirondack Park Agency regulations and policies, including science-based reforms such as transfer of development rights, clustering and smart-growth incentives. We applaud the governor's budget proposal to increase funding for Adirondack and Catskill Park smart-growth community planning grants. These actions can better protect the Adirondack backcountry and wild character.
We applaud the governor's statement in his State of the State book that we need to and can "reduce the development pressure upon the backcountry" and "support hamlet revitalization smart growth, and redevelopment of former industrial sites." Ticonderoga gets that, we do, and the governor does, too.
Sincerely,
William C. Janeway
Executive Director
The Adirondack Council
Elizabethtown
Adirondack Daily Enterprise
