Since the Adirondack Park Agency was formed in the early 1970s, it has been pounded hard by both environmentalists and, especially, by pro-development advocates. It's very hard to sit between two extremes and make decisions that are not going to alienate significant numbers.
Environmentalists have often argued that the agency hasn't done enough to protect the sublime, pristine, irreplaceable assets of the Adirondack Mountains. Developers and many residents have insisted that the arbitrary, oppressive rulings of the agency have made living and working in the Adirondacks an impossibility for all except the wealthiest.
It's an extremely difficult assignment the APA has — to protect nature while encouraging commerce.
The agency has taken on some powerful people and organizations. Lately, it has been and is being challenged over rules against the construction of farm dwellings and the size of a building in a cluster of other buildings of similar proportions. Those kinds of challenges lead many in the public to believe the agency is reaching for power, exaggerating its own authority.
Yet, sit with APA board members and staff, and you have the distinct impression you are among reasonable people determined simply to do what the State Legislature ordered it to do in 1971, impelled by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's resolve.
So the APA is almost unavoidably operating in controversy. Adirondackers had long held that they had been the best stewards of their land since people first lived here, and any government agency bent on usurping their authority was going to have its hands full.
The APA Board, like any other board, public or private, is fluid. People come and go. Currently, the state is filling a board seat to be vacated with the departure of Arthur Lussi of Lake Placid, whose term has already expired.
Wouldn't you think that the governor would take stock of the agency's history of existing in hostility and select a nominee most likely to engender some calming influence, if that is possible?
Instead, he has nominated a leading environmentalist, Peter Hornbeck of Olmsteadville, to replace the businessman Lussi. Hornbeck is on the board of Protect Adirondacks, a regional environmental powerhouse that has sued the APA over one of its decisions. Three other board members were already plucked from the pro-environment Adirondack Council.
Hornbeck might be the fairest-minded individual to ever breathe Adirondack air, but his background certainly invites disdain from those at the other end of the ideological spectrum.
Sen. Betty Little, who opposes the nomination (and has squared off with the APA on many issues), points out that Protect Adirondacks has been vocal against the Adirondack Club and Resort proposal in Tupper Lake, one of the important decisions the APA will have to rule on in the next few years. How objective can Hornbeck be on that?
Even if he can be, asking anyone to believe it stretches credulity.
Hornbeck's appointment is not only an affront to the pro-development Adirondackers, it is a disservice to an agency trying hard to earn the public's confidence.
Opinion
March 2, 2010
EDITORIAL: Troublesome nomination for APA
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Editorial: A pair of aces among the Cards
How fitting was it for Bob Emery and Kevin Houle to achieve coaching milestones on the same day and in the same building.
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Editorial: A pair of aces among the Cards
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Cheers and Jeers: Feb. 6, 2012
CHEERS to Dr. Anne Cahill and JEERS to drivers who don't signal for turns and changing lanes.
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Cheers and Jeers: Feb. 6, 2012
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In My Opinion: Behind the city lockbox program
AFSCME Local 788 has received the opinion and award of Arbitrator Kenneth J. Toomey denying the union's grievance of the city's Financial Lockbox, by which residents' water, sewer and trash payments can be routed to a Glens Falls National Bank subcontractor in Hicksville, Long Island, union President Denise Nephew writes.
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In My Opinion: Behind the city lockbox program
