Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recently released draft budget for 2019-2020 is disappointing because it misses some major priorities for the Adirondack environment and communities.
Major issues across the Adirondacks, such as increased funding for the High Peaks Wilderness to build a sustainable trail network, more Forest Rangers, or a larger Environmental Protection Fund to meet major challenges of climate change, were all ignored in this budget. » Continue Reading.
Thanks to Governor Cuomo and his environmental agencies (APA and DEC), the long-awaited Adirondack Rail Trail has overcome legal roadblocks and is back on track.
This means that Tri-Lakes residents and visitors should soon reap multiple benefits from the scenic travel corridor (the publicly owned rail bed) connecting Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake. » Continue Reading.
Headlined at this month’s meeting of the Adirondack Park Agency was a vote by the APA members to amend the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (SLMP) to allow Rail Trails to be added to the definition of a Travel Corridor, and to support a rail trail in the SLMP’s Travel Corridor management guidance.
Prior to the APA decision, which like all Master Plan amendments must be ratified by the Governor, rail trails were not defined or authorized under the SLMP’s Travel Corridor overlay classification. Travel Corridors applied only to the strip of land constituting the roadbed and right of way of state and interstate highways and the Remsen to Lake Placid railroad right of way, as well those state lands immediately adjacent to these facilities. Such facilities had to be transportation related- not just recreational. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have announced they are holding a joint public comment period to solicit comments regarding proposed guidance for ski touring trails in the “forever wild” Adirondack Forest Preserve and their conformance to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan.
The proposal adds to existing standards and guidelines for cross-country ski trails as currently defined in the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan and the Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Preserve Policy Manual. The joint public comment period will conclude on February 1, 2019.
The Backcountry Ski Trail plans can be found here. What follows is an unedited APA press release describing the proposed changes: » Continue Reading.
The New York State Adirondack Park Agency has recommended approval for an amendment to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP) to change the Travel Corridors classification category definition, the guidelines for management and use, and amendments of related provisions. The Agency’s recommendation will move to Governor Andrew Cuomo for his approval.
The Agency issued the following news release Friday afternoon. You can read more about the rail trail controversy here at the Adirondack Almanack: » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook, NY on Thursday, December 13th and Friday December 14th, 2018. Both meeting days will begin at 9:30 am.
The meeting will address the Lyme Timber Company forest management project; consideration of authorizing a public comment period regarding State Land Master Plan conformance for proposed Ski Trail Guidance; a presentation from Dan Josephson from Cornell University; discussion on State Land Master Plan conformance; and more. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is accepting public comment on its draft policy for Renewable Energy Production and Energy Supply.
The purpose of the policy is to provide guidance for the review and approval of renewable energy projects inside the Adirondack Park with regards to the Adirondack Park Agency Act, the Freshwater Wetlands Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act. » Continue Reading.
Currently on the Adirondack Park Agency website (apa.ny.gov) are links to “large scale subdivisions currently under review,” an entirely new feature. What is that new feature all about?
Earlier this year, APA adopted a new application for large-scale residential subdivisions, as the agency defines them. In the green land use color, Resource Management, large scale subdivisions are defined as 5 or more lots or parcels in a given project. In the yellow land use color, Rural Use, they are defined as 10 or more lots or parcels. In the orange, or Low Intensity use, they are defined as 25 or more lots or parcels. All subdivisions in those colors meeting those size thresholds, says the APA, must meet new application guidelines. » Continue Reading.
The Cuomo Administration is searching for a new Chair for the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). The Governor appointed Karen Feldman, an attorney from Columbia County, who also has a home on Schroon Lake, as a Temporary Chair in July at the time the APA Chair Sherman Craig (Wanakena) resigned. Feldman is campaigning for her temporary status to be made permanent and she is currently Team Cuomo’s top candidate for the job.
The APA Chair is one of eight appointed Board seats where an individual is nominated by the Governor and approved by the State Senate. Under state law, five APA Board members must be full-time Park residents and three must reside in counties outside the Adirondack Park Blue Line. There can only be a maximum of five Board members from one political party and Board members serve 4 year terms, two of which expire each year and run in a continuous cycle. Under NYS law Board members can continue to serve in “expired” terms. New Board members are often appointed to partial terms. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook, NY on Thursday, September 13th, 2018.
The meeting will address a variance request to expand a single-family dwelling located within the shoreline setback of Fern Lake; consideration of a State Land Master Plan conformance public comment period for a proposal to amend the Department of Environmental Conservation’s generic campground unit management plan; a discussion on the Agency’s policy on Renewable Energy Production and Energy Supply; and more.
What follows is the agenda issued by the APA: » Continue Reading.
A new major subdivision project is under review by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). It’s the first to use the new application process developed by the APA earlier this year for large-scale subdivisions.
The project is shaping up as an important test drive of both the new review process and to see if the APA can convince a major developer that has undertaken a series of conventional checkerboard subdivision projects across New York to do business in the Adirondacks differently by utilizing land use development practices that protect open space and natural resources. » Continue Reading.
Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the Canoe-In for Wilderness on Little Tupper Lake. On August 15, 1998, over 300 people in over 200 canoes, kayaks, guide-boats, rowboats, and one small sailboat, rallied on the sloping lawns of the Whitney Headquarters on the shore of Little Tupper Lake and then paddled out onto the lake in a massive flotilla in the Canoe-In for Wilderness at Little Tupper Lake.
This event was the biggest environmental rally in a very challenging and divisive time in Adirondack Park history. Those who gathered that day were unabashed in their support for a Wilderness classification for the newly purchased Little Tupper Lake. A number of important motorless waters were created in the years after the Canoe-In for Wilderness. In 1998, there had not been a major piece of land classified as Wilderness since the late 1980s when the Blue Ridge and West Canada Lake Wilderness Areas were expanded around Cedar River Flow. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook, NY on Thursday, August 9th, 2018.
The meeting will address Town of Caroga’s Approved Local Land Use Program’s zoning ordinance; expansion Lake George Riverview RV Park; State Land reclassifications involving the Gore Mountain Intensive Ski Area, and more. In the afternoon, the Board will tour Mt. Van Hoevenburg Olympic Sports Complex (the public is invited).
What follows is the agenda issued by the APA: » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is now accepting public comments for a proposed amendment to the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex Intensive Use Area Unit Management Plan.
The APA will accept public comments until July 27, 2018 regarding Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan conformance for the proposed management actions.
What follows is a press announcement from APA: » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is accepting public comment on Volume 1 of the Generic Travel Corridor Unit Management Plan (TCUMP) for State Highway Travel Corridors in the Adirondack Park.
The generic plan outlines park-wide goals, strategies, objectives, policies, guidelines and best management practices to enable the development of route-specific corridor plans. In addition, the TCUMP coordinates and integrates the planning responsibilities of the state agencies statutorily responsible for state highway travel corridors within the Adirondack Park.
The APA will accept public comments until August 10, 2018 regarding Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan conformance. » Continue Reading.
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