The Adirondack Park Agency has just approved a massive 6,500 acre, 650 housing unit resort and vacation home development in an area bounded by “Forever Wild” Adirondack Park lands.  The “Adirondack Club Resort”  would include 15 30-50 acre “great camp” lots — a sprawling vacation home development in wild forest areas — as well as hundreds of single and multi-family units incorporated into redevelopment of the existing (and moribund) Big Tupoer ski area.  A map of the contemplated development is here.

While the density and use proposals appear to be in compliance with Adirondack Park Agency zone designations and numerical development guidelines, this project will have a massive impact on an existing wilderness area, and seems out of keeping with the wilderness character of that part of the Adirondacks.  It is not altogether clear that the Adirondacks can support a second, major, Lake Placid style resort community.  Apparently, the project is not economically viable without substantial taxpayer subsidization in the form of Industrial Development Agency bonds.   In addition to the land use impacts, the project will require massive water withdrawals to support snowmaking at the expanded ski area, as well as discharges of treated sewage directly into Tupper Lake.

While the Adirondack Park Agency is charged with balancing economic development needs with preservation of the wilderness character of the Adirondack Park, this massive residential subdivision is out of keeping with the previous organic character of small-scale development within the Adirondack park.

Protect the Adirondacks has been leading the fight against this project, and presented evidence in the administrative hearings before the APA.