RAY BROOK — It was a crowded room, with chairs placed closer together than usual.

A general sense of optimism seemed to pervade the atmosphere at Friday's Adirondack Park Agency meeting.

APA sessions often simmer with tension endured in silence, except for the public-comment session.

On Friday, APA put that comment session at the end of meeting, giving people a chance to voice reaction to the Adirondack Club and Resort permit.

Some shed tears. A few shook their heads. Others smiled in apparent relief or joy or disbelief.

Nobody budged, elbow to elbow, when speakers stepped up to the open microphone.

HARD WORK CITED

Don Dew Jr. owns a motel in Tupper Lake. As a party to adjudication and an active member of the community, he thanked APA for its hard work.

He said he has often watched the developers, Michael Foxman and Tom Lawson, sitting across the room.

But on Friday, he pointed out how much time and effort APA staff had put into review over the last eight years.

"The taxpayers of New York state certainly invested a lot in this process," he said.

And now that the permit is approved, the bitter debate ended, "what am I going to do with my life?" Dew asked.

"I'm not sure."

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

A few years ago, Tupper Lake Realtor Jim LaValley helped organize a grass-roots effort called Adirondack Residents Intent on Saving their Economy, or ARISE, to rebuild the Big Tupper Ski Center and coordinate local support for the resort project.

"Thank you," he told the commissioners.

"What a long, strange trip it's been."

LaValley said he drafted a permit for success.

In "findings of fact," akin to the APA process, he advised, "Tupper Lakers are a scrappy bunch."

Facing fierce challenge from the start, he said, the community rallied to show its support for development in their town.

The condition for his permit, LaValley said, is to prove that the community of Tupper Lake could pull together to make sure the resort project meets success.

"It's time to get busy."

'BRIGHT DAY'

Speaking as past president of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, Bill Farber, who is chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors, said Friday's APA decision reflects on the region as a whole.

"It's a bright day for the Adirondacks."

The bright spot, he said, emerged in an APA focused on making its process more efficient and effective.

"(Resort deliberations) were an example of the way it should work, in convening people with different interests and getting them to work together."

Tupper Lake businessman Tim Coughlin, an interior designer who recently moved back home from Atlanta, thanked APA for generations to come.

"You have given a reason for kids to stay in this area."

Tupper Lake Mayor Paul Maroun told the commissioners that he would make sure environmental conditions of the permit are met, "so we can be proud of this project."

CALLED INCONSISTENT

Adirondack Wild founder Dan Plumley spoke too, but not about losing a motion to re-enter hearings.

"We've always supported the people of Tupper Lake and their personal opinions for or against (the project)," he said, but he felt "the full breadth of public trust was not carried through. This is a big change for open-space projects that have come before you."

BALANCED APPROACH

From outside the public-comment arena, legislators, civic leaders and members of the community shared their thoughts in announcements, comments and Web blogs.

"Today, the APA fulfilled its original mission, which isn't to discourage all development and economic activity, as some voices want, but to instead help plan and guide balanced approaches," Garry Douglas, president of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, said in an email.

"Common sense has prevailed. The regional business community continues to cheer on and support the people of Tupper Lake and will continue to help in every way possible."

At the Adirondack North Country Association, Executive Director Kate Fish said Tupper Lake worked hard to re-invigorate itself and applauded the effort.

"ANCA also sees the (resort) project as advancing the North Country Regional Economic Development Council's vision of elevating global recognition of the region as one of the special places on the planet to visit, live, work and study."

Email Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com