Posts Tagged ‘adirondack club and resort’

Sunday, January 19, 2020

The Great Recession Changed Our Development Landscape

News came from New England’s north woods last fall that a large residential and commercial development on 17,000-acres near Maine’s Moosehead Lake conceived before the Great Recession has not begun and would not move forward.

The APA-permitted Adirondack Club and Resort near Tupper Lake has also not commenced, largely for economic reasons. The developer, Preserve Associates, is being foreclosed upon, their creditors are pressing for relief, and the new mortgage holders (Crossroads LLC) are trying to figure out what to do once they acquire the 6,200 acres.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Wild Center Adds 34 Acres from the Adirondack Club and Resort

The Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR) planned for Tupper Lake donated 34 acres of land to the Wild Center in celebration of the Hull family, it was announced Monday. The land includes the oxbow on the Raquette River where the natural history museum holds canoe and stand-up paddleboard trips in the summer. The gift expands the Wild Center campus to 115 acres.

“The Hull Family loved the Adirondacks, and more than anything wanted to encourage people from across New York and the country to come and see this incredible natural beauty. That’s the same thing the Wild Center has tried to capture, which is why we are honored to make this donation today,” ACR developer Tom Lawson said in a press release.

The Hull family were leaders of the Oval Wood Dish Corporation, which moved to Tupper Lake in 1915. William Cary Hull donated the land and helped found the Tupper Lake Country Club. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Dave Gibson: Tupper Resort Delay Self-Inflicted

A scene from the APA's hearing on ACR. Photo by Dave Gibson, Adirondack WildOne who participated or sat through the Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR) adjudicatory public hearing in 2011 is hard pressed not to read with interest the recent articles about the status of ACR in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. The articles appeared in the August 11-12 editions.

Michael Foxman, ACR lead developer, is quoted in one article as saying: “We’ve been bled dry for millions of dollars. We had about $10 million worth of lawyers and planners and engineering approval delay costs. I think that no one including me could’ve imagined the complexity of trying to develop in the Adirondacks with objections from the preservation groups.” » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Dick Booth To Step Down From APA Board

BoothThe Adirondack Park Agency board will soon lose its strongest defender of wilderness: Dick Booth does not intend to serve another term.

Booth’s current four-year term expires June 30, but he said he will stay on awhile if a successor is not appointed by then.

A professor in Cornell’s Department of City and Regional Planning, Booth told Adirondack Almanack he is leaving partly out of frustration with decisions at the agency. He also said the long drive from Ithaca to Ray Brook for monthly meetings and poring over stacks of documents in preparation for those meetings proved draining over the years.

“I’ve been there eight and a half years,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed it, but at some point it’s time to step aside.”

» Continue Reading.


Monday, October 19, 2015

Promises Ignored: Adirondack Resort Seeks State Funding

REDC-Regions-300x236This week, New York State will host the ten Regional Economic Development Councils (REDC) to examine their annual round of project submissions. This is the fifth year of the statewide funding competition created under Governor Andrew Cuomo.

I say good luck to those projects which seek to enhance the Park’s human communities, quality of life, and job growth and retention grounded upon protection and appreciation of the Park’s natural resources, wilderness and scenic beauty, and outdoor recreation.   One project however, is seeking state funding which exploits rather than enhances the Adirondack Park: the Adirondack Club and Resort. » Continue Reading.


Monday, May 11, 2015

Community Awaits Adirondack Club and Resort

ACR-Lawson-300x187Last winter, the massive Adirondack Club and Resort proposed for Tupper Lake cleared its final major hurdle. After more than a decade of debate and controversy, environmental activists and a handful of local property owners who fought to block the project were dealt a sweeping defeat by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court.

The December 2014 ruling, upholding permits issued by the Adirondack Park Agency two years earlier, appeared to open the way for the $500 million project to move forward. It was hailed as a historic moment for the community. “I think the pieces are now in place to do what Tupper Lake and the Adirondack Park need,” said Tupper Lake Mayor Paul Maroun.

But nearly five months later, ACR developers, local pro-development activists, and business leaders acknowledge that considerable uncertainty remains about the timeline for construction and about the broader viability of the resort’s ambitious business plan. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Plaintiffs In Tupper Resort Suit Lose Final Appeal

cranberry pondEnvironmentalists challenging the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort in Tupper Lake have lost their bid to continue their lawsuit against the developer and the Adirondack Park Agency.

The Court of Appeals, the state’s highest tribunal, today rejected a motion by Protect the Adirondacks and the Sierra Club seeking permission to appeal a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit.

The green groups contended, among other things, that the project violated the APA Act by fragmenting timberlands into “Great Camp” estates. The APA, which approved the project in January 2012, maintains that the project is legal.

“We’re very disappointed in the decision,” Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect, told Adirondack Almanack. “It takes thousands of acres of timberlands and puts them on the chopping block.”

» Continue Reading.


Monday, December 8, 2014

Will An ‘ACR Interpretation’ Be APA’s New Default?

Woodworth and Hines LakesPeter Bauer has well summarized the current Adirondack Park Agency application by New York Land and Lakes Development LLC for 24 housing lots (plus five common lots, including the lakes themselves) on 1,120 acres around Woodworth and Hines Lakes in the southern Adirondack Park, Towns of Bleecker and Johnstown.

The land is zoned Resource Management: “where the need to protect, manage and enhance forest, agricultural, recreational, and open space resources is of paramount importance.”  The basic purposes of RM lands is “to protect the delicate physical and biological resources, encourage proper and economic management of forest, agricultural and recreational resources and preserve the open spaces that are essential and basic to the unique character of the park.” » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Foes Of Tupper Lake Project Denied Leave To Appeal

ACR-aerial3Opponents of the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort in Tupper Lake have suffered another legal setback in their quest to stop the project.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court has refused to grant the opponents leave to take their case to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest tribunal.

Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, said the opponents will file a similar motion with the Court of Appeals itself within thirty days. The high court is expected to issue its decision by the end of the year.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Is The APA’s Land-Use Plan Mandatory Or Not?

ACR-aerial3Backers of the Adirondack Club and Resort complain that their opponents are stalling the project by appealing the Appellate Division’s 5-0 decision in favor of the resort.

That’s an understandable reaction, but the opponents have raised an interesting legal question with broad ramifications for the whole Adirondack Park. At least, that’s how it appears to a layman.

The question is: Are the development guidelines set forth in the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan mandatory or not?

In a decision in July, the Appellate Division suggested that they are not mandatory.

The question came up because the project’s opponents contend, among other things, that dividing up timberlands for “Great Camp” estates violates the land-use plan.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A Judicial Retreat From Protecting The Adirondacks

Lady JusticeThe recent decision by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court upholding the approval by the Adirondack Park Agency of the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR) project in Tupper Lake has generated intense controversy. Groups on both sides have weighed in with their views on the wisdom or folly of the APA’s approval of the massive project and the court’s affirmance of that approval.

Putting aside the merits of the controversy, what is striking about the court’s decision is the startling absence of any discussion of the uniqueness of the Adirondack Park, the history or purpose of the APA Act, or the special place the Park occupies in the hearts and minds of the people of New York. These omissions are all the more disturbing because of the court’s recognition that ACR is “the largest project ever proposed for New York’s 6,000,000-acre Adirondack Park.” Which leads one to wonder: have the courts fallen out of love with the Adirondack Park? » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 4, 2014

Fight Against APA Over Tupper Resort Continues

Adirondack Club and Resort MapProtect the Adirondacks and the Sierra Club are asking the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, to review a recent decision in favor of the developers of the Adirondack Club and Resort, a massive development proposed for Tupper Lake.

In July, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court upheld the Adirondack Park Agency’s decision to grant a permit to the developers.

In a statement today, Protect and the Sierra Club said the midlevel appeals court, which is based in Albany, made several errors in its analysis of the case. Because the Appellate Division’s decision was unanimous, the groups must seek permission to take the case to the Court of Appeals.

Following is the groups’ full statement:

» Continue Reading.


Friday, May 2, 2014

Adirondack Club and Resort Update:
Appellate Court Oral Arguments

Adirondack Club and Resort MapIn so far as a judicial ruling expected later this year, nothing can be determined by the questions the judges posed this week regarding the Adirondack Club and Resort, that precedent-setting subdivision near Tupper Lake still being litigated. But the questions raised by several of the judges on the Appellate Court in Albany (and answers given) were interesting because they were unexpected (by me, anyway) and largely unrelated to the big, controversial issues surrounding the spreading out of the Great Camps, the use of the Resource Management lands for exurban sprawl development that is neither “on substantial acreages or in small clusters on carefully selected and well designed sites” (quoting the APA Act), or about the lack of substantive information in the hearing record about the project’s financing, marketing, sales and tax projections. » Continue Reading.


Monday, October 7, 2013

Commentary: Stop Using Big Tupper As A Pawn

Big-Tupper-Trail-Map-792x1024ARISE (Adirondack Residents Intent on Saving their Economy), the volunteer group that ran Big Tupper Ski Area for the winters of 2010-11 and 2011-12, recently announced that Big Tupper will be open for the 2013-14 season. The ski area did not operate last winter due to a shortfall of funds and volunteer burnout.

Keeping any ski area open and running is great for the sport. Small, local hills like Big Tupper are vitally important because they provide a lower-cost alternative and they introduce people to skiing. Kudos to the volunteers at Big Tupper for all their efforts over the past few years.  But it’s not all good news. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Small Species: Critical to Ecosystem Health

Michael Klemens sampling for amphibians(1)Small species slithering unseen within the forest leaf litter, or croaking and peeping from the edge of wetlands rarely take center stage in either conservation or Adirondack land development discussions. 

In fact, they are often completely overlooked, but that is changing with the leading work of Dr. Michael Klemens. An internationally recognized biologist, herpetologist and scientist-advocate for conservation design, Dr. Klemens has been retained by Adirondack Wild to give much needed attention to frogs, salamanders, and reptiles – key to the base of our Adirondack forest ecosystem and food chain. » Continue Reading.



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The Adirondack Almanack is a public forum dedicated to promoting and discussing current events, history, arts, nature and outdoor recreation and other topics of interest to the Adirondacks and its communities

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