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October 4, 2007

Judge sets date for Tupper resort project conference

Mediation confab raises concerns

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

LAKE PLACID -- The judge has set a date to convene a conference on mediation for resort developers in Tupper Lake.

Administrative Law Judge Daniel P. O'Connell announced an Oct. 24 meeting to be held at the Goff-Nelson Library on Lake Street, beginning at 10 a.m.

Mediation is top on the list of four topics to be discussed that day.

MEDIATION SOUGHT

Developers of the proposed Adirondack Club & Resort project last month requested a mediation step, a move some say may confuse the adjudication process put into motion last spring by the Adirondack Park Agency.

After three years of engineering on a resort project that proposes to build more than 600 units of housing and resort amenities around a reclaimed Big Tupper Ski Area, APA ordered 10 issues to adjudicatory hearing.

The issues range from compliance with Adirondack Park land-use law on Resource Management lands to impact on local resources.

Developers have since removed one wastewater-treatment plant and an East Ridge complex from the plan.

They have also suggested relocating a proposed Orvis brand shooting-clays course.

But APA and the Department of Environmental Conservation have not received updated applications reflecting those changes, a matter also up for discussion on Oct. 24.

DIVIDED OPINIONS

Party status will be reviewed, along with issues for adjudication, "which may be discussed during mediation," O'Connell said in a memorandum.

The Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce has said it believes mediation would be helpful.

But the Adirondack Park Agency, while hopeful about the process, has questioned the timing of a mediation step, saying that, even afterward, it may still require adjudication.

If "the record is incomplete on certain issues, it may require completion of the adjudicatory hearing it ordered in the first instance," agency officials wrote.

Several environmentalist groups have also been hesitant to support a mediation process.

The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks issued a statement this week demanding full disclosure of project specifications and updates.

"Dozens of potential parties to this public hearing have been waiting since April for (developer) Mr. (Michael) Foxman and his consultants to respond to the ALJ's order and submit the most basic kinds of project information, such as when he will apply for up to five permits from the Department of Environmental Conservation, each of which seek to protect public and environmental health," said Dan Plumley, the association's director of park protection.

"Nobody can know what the hearing will cover until he submits the requested information."

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Plumley said his group was "very skeptical" of mediation at this stage.

"The issues APA raised are significant, and we need to know what this project is in order to mediate."

Plumley called the move to mediation "superficial."

"The hearing process itself is extensive and requires a lot of time for a large number of parties. Let's get to those real issues that require factual determination, not foggy questions about mediation without any definition.

"Neither Tupper Lake nor any of the parties benefit from a 3 Card Monty' type process."

kdedam@pressrepublican.com

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