OPINION: Adirondack Development Proposal Deserves Spitzer’s Scrutiny

By Fred Lebrun, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.

Jan. 9–If newly installed Gov. Eliot Spitzer thought he would get a breather before having to make some hard decisions, the Adirondacks will set him straight.

He needs to intrude, in a hurry, in a crisis up north, even before he names a Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner, or sets a much-needed new direction for the Adirondack Park Agency.

Because alarms are clanging over a bold attempt by the APA, which is rife with avid pro-development Pataki administration appointees, to rush through approval of the largest residential subdivision in the 114-year history of the Adirondack Park.

Developer Michael Foxman’s mega-vision to create the high-end Adirondack Club and Resort, which would include 700 expensive units on 6,400 acres, much of it in back country, has been highly controversial since it was proposed three years ago. Part of the plan, a sop to the locals, is reopening Big Tupper Ski Center as an economic engine.

Foxman’s development is, if anything, more controversial than ever.

The developer is calling for the Franklin County Industrial Development Agency to come up with $50 million to $60 million for infrastructure costs. In essence, that would require the county taxpayers to guarantee the bonds for his private venture. That is a stupefying request. Even more mind-boggling is that there are those in the town and county who are ready to go along with the developer.

Whether Foxman’s planned development, particularly its scale, belongs in Tupper Lake at all is a very good question that hasn’t gotten the thorough, independent scrutiny that a project of this size ought to get. That’s why the alarm bells are going off.

Because what the APA is heading for, as early as February, it would seem, is approval of his development before any of the hard questions are considered, for example, at a hearing before an administrative judge.

It is utterly irresponsible of the park agency not to have a full adjudicatory hearing and a series of legislative public hearings as well for a scheme that, when fully implemented, would change the face and therefore the future of the Adirondacks.

This is too big a project not to get the Full Monty in terms of scrutiny and critical oversight, much as Dean Gitter got with his comparable Belleayre development project in the Catskills.

Questions hang out there, like why does this developer need public financing at all? Why isn’t he coming up with his own for the infrastructure? What will be the impact of these $500,000 homes and an Orvis-run shooting school on the middle-class village of Tupper Lake, nearly 2 miles from the area proposed for development? How will residents’ lives change? What about their taxes? How will the surrounding back country be affected? are the guarantees for the town and village that this scheme isn’t a financial house of cards that will come tumbling down and smother local taxpayers?

At any rate, opinions run hot on whether Michael Foxman wears horns or a halo, whether he’s in it simply as a brazen exploiter or is the savior for the Adirondack’s third major lake town, after Placid and Saranac.

Regardless, tediously detailed, full hearings are a no-brainer, and we hope the governor would urge his state agency, the APA, not to do a rush job.

That, in essence, is what a gaggle of environmental groups will be promoting at a news conference at the Capitol today. hope the governor is listening.

Fred LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.

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