The Empire Page

Background:  Earlier this year we published an interview with Brian Houseal, executive director of the Adirondack Council, whose organization among others expressed a disatisfaction with Gov. Paterson's budget with regard to the environment in general and the Adirondacks in particular.  To learn how some other people feel about those issues we interviewed Frederick H. Monroe, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, a body representing government entities in the Adirondacks.

 

Empire Page: In his budget proposal in January Gov. Paterson proposed a moratorium on state land purchases in the Adirondack Park, reducing this year's Environmental Protection Fund by $58.9 million.  Brian Houseal of the Adirondack Council opposes the moratorium.  How does your group feel about that issue?

Fred Monroe: The Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board is in favor of a moratorium proposal on land acquisition as it relates to the Adirondacks. The reduction in the EPF would be money used for land acquisition, other programs paid for by the fund will continue.

After years of state land purchases, some Adirondack communities have little or no land left for necessary infrastructure, affordable housing, economic development and other community necessities. Some towns need to have a statewide vote to change the state constitution in order to accomplish projects like bringing power or water into a community. In the recent Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project Report, it was revealed that six towns have less than 25 percent of their land as privately owned: Arietta (94% state owned); Benson (90%); Inlet (88%); St. Armand (80%); Wells (79%); Lake Pleasant (78%). In those cases and others, the optimal balance between concentrations of land uses for private and public uses is quite out of order.

In addition, the Adirondack Park represents one-fifth of the area of New York State – and already holds two-thirds of all the land New York State owns. With only 15 percent of the total acreage in the Adirondack Park available for use for residents and businesses, any land sale will make it more difficult for sustainable economies to flourish.

Here is a breakdown of that number, courtesy of the Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project Report (available at http://www.aatvny.org):

 

Type of land                         No Acres        Percent of Park
Publicly owned Lands        2,501,395                    45%
Public Easements                 338,097                       6%
Private Easements               173,197                       3%
480 and 480a Lands             608,959                       11%
Slopes and Hydro                583,306                       10%
Parcels with Other               578,195                       10%
    Existing Land Uses

Net Area                    =          835,990 acres             15%

We believe that during a moratorium, the Administration should develop legislation that directs the state Economic Development Corporation to prepare an economic impact statement on any future proposal for fee or easement acquisition in any community in the 12 counties of the Adirondack Park where state ownership exceeds 25% of all land, and county and town approval of any acquisition in any community where state ownership exceeds 50% of land.

 

Empire Page: Explain to the Empire Page readers why the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board was formed and what is its mission?

Fred Monroe: The Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board was created, in 1973, in the same law that created the Adirondack Park Agency, Executive Law Section 803-a.

The Board was created for the purpose of “advising and assisting the Adirondack Park Agency in carrying out its functions, powers and duties.”

The Board consists of twelve members, each of whom “shall be a resident of a county wholly or partly within the park.”

In addition to any other functions or duties specifically required or authorized in this article, the law states that the Review Board “shall monitor the administration and enforcement of the Adirondack Park land use and development plan and periodically report thereon, and make recommendations in regard thereto, to the governor and the legislature, and to the county legislative body of each of the counties wholly or partly within the park.”

There are 103 towns and villages, and twelve counties, wholly or partly within the Adirondack Park.

 

Empire Page: The Albany Times Union published a piece in April by John Sheehan, the spokesman for the Adirondack Council, in which he argued that the Adirondack Park is an economic success and a model for rural development.   Do you agree with his assessment?  If not why not?

Fred Monroe: Personally, I do not agree with his assessment - and neither do Review Board members, or the leaders or citizens of the towns and villages in the Adirondack Park.

I wrote a piece for the Times Union that disagreed with his assessment that was printed two weeks later. In it, I detailed statistical information from the Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project Report (available for free at http://www.aatvny.org) that clearly indicate that the Adirondack Park is nowhere near a model for rural development, nor an economic success:

•  Fifty-four of the 103 Adirondack communities experienced a decline in population from 2000-2006. What growth there was in the Adirondacks was primarily restricted to the southern and southeastern perimeters of the Adirondacks - Saratoga County (which is the fastest growing county in the state) and Warren County. Both are close to the Northway (Interstate 87) and have the kind of amenities (services, broadband and cellular connectivity, etc.) that most communities farther inside the Adirondack Park do not.

• The median age of park residents is just under 43 years, according to the APRAP study - older than almost all other areas of the country and rising more rapidly than elsewhere. And, by 2020, only the west coast of Florida will be, on average, older. The reason? Young families are moving out - there are few good jobs for them - and retirees are moving in.

• Seasonal unemployment in five of the twelve counties in the park was more than 8 percent from 2001 to 2008; this rate is 50 percent more than statewide average during the same period;

• School enrollments are decreasing, on average, by 329 students a year as young families move out, the equivalent of losing one average size Adirondack school district every 19 months.

• Only seven park communities - out of 103 - have complete cell phone coverage. Thirty-five percent of the survey respondents identify the lack of telecommunications services - wireless and broadband - as a negative influence in retaining or attracting businesses to their communities.

 

In order to make the Adirondack Park an economic success and a model for rural development, we need investment from private businesses, large and small. We need infrastructure that is lacking throughout much of the Adirondacks - except in areas near the lakes, mentioned above, where population and average income is not decreasing.

And if the state is going to invest money in the Adirondacks, that investment should go toward broadband and cell service, water and sewer projects rather than buying more land. As it stands right now, private citizens have about 15 percent of the land in the Adirondack Park available for their use. About half of one percent of the land is used for commercial or industrial use. Let's allow green businesses to come in and make products, and hire people, and invest in local infrastructure. That's the only way to create a healthy and successful economy -  with a mix of public services and private businesses, where the tax burden is shared widely.

The newly formed Adirondack Caucus of New York State Legislators is holding a series of community meetings throughout the Adirondack Park this summer to discuss the APRAP and hear ideas from communities on needed economic development. The first was in Chester in April, and the second was in Tupper Lake in May. The next one is planned for mid-June in Inlet.

Empire Page: The Adirondack Park Agency was created in 1971 to develop long-range land use plans for public and private land inside the Park.  Is the Local Government Review Board satisfied with the performance of the APA?

Fred Monroe: The Review Board is not satisfied with the performance of the APA in terms of the long-range land use plans for public and private land inside the Adirondacks.

The original plans for private and public lands were drafted and became effective in 1973. They have not been reviewed and modified on a regular basis since to deal with changes in how we view and use land now - they are stuck in a 1970s mindset.

Most state agencies have program bills each year to update their guiding statute. Those program bills make changes in statute based on the new insights and changing conditions.  The APA has not done that in more than 25 years.

In addition to the overarching concerns, the Review Board has specific concerns about the two plans. In the private land use plan:

There is no statute of limitations on enforcement actions. The Agency can bring an enforcement action and levy a fine against a current property owner over a change made by a previous owner - even as far back as 1973. The current owner may know nothing about the issue and still be required to deal with the consequences. New York State Criminal Law provides a five-year statute of limitations for all but the most serious felonies. Adirondack landowners deserve similar protection - especially in situations where they have no culpability.

There is no cap on the amount of fines that may be assessed by the APA for an alleged violation. Maximum fines for even minor violations accumulate daily and quickly grow to millions of dollars - the kinds of stresses that contribute to heart attacks and suicides.

There is no bright line of jurisdiction for many projects, which leads to confusion, frustration and costly delays. A clear discussion and decision needs to be made about project jurisdiction between the APA and other commissions and governmental bodies, and that line needs to be communicated with the public on a regular basis. For too many landowners, there are overlapping and conflicting rules which leads to regulatory gridlock and needed economic projects being abandoned.

In the State Land Master Plan many historic places in the Adirondacks are not classified as historic - and therefore are not protected and preserved in a way that befits their heritage. Until 1979, there wasn't even a historic designation in the State Land Master Plan. Only three places in only one of the twelve counties of the Adirondacks are classified as historic:  Great Camp Santanoni, John Brown's Farm and Crown Point - all in Essex County. The APA has not  deemed anything else worth saving . Numerous historic structures have been destroyed by DEC, like Great Camp Fox Lair, Great Camp Nehasane and Scaroon Manor.

The State Land Master Plan (SLUMP) recognizes the importance of the forest products industry to the Adirondacks and provides that highly productive forestlands should not usually be acquired by the state in fee unless they are threatened with imminent development. DEC routinely ignores that requirement - when was the last time productive forestland in the Adirondacks was threatened with imminent development? - in any of the large land purchases of the last decade. New York State has purchased 300,000 acres of productive forestlands in the last twelve years causing the loss of hundreds of jobs in the forest industry. The APA is charged with the responsibility of insuring compliance with the SLUMP but has taken a totally hands-off position on that issue.

There is no publicly disclosed plan on land acquisition - specifically what is the expected "final" mix of public and private land in the Adirondack Park. We can't even get a complete map of what the state owns in the Adirondacks. In addition, there is no public process to determine what that final mix should be, or process on whether the state should even be purchasing more land in addition to what it already owns. There is no legislative oversight of the acquisition process, and there need to be checks and balances on the process.

There is a provision in the SLUMP that requires that major reviews and revisions of the SLUMP be conducted every five years. The SLUMP was signed by Governor Rockefeller in 1972, meaning there should have been nine major reviews since that time. There have only been three reviews conducted. It is time to make changes in the SLUMP based on land use now, rather than on how land was thought to be used in the 1970s.

The snowmobiling industry is critical to the winter economy of the region.  The SLUMP provides that there shall no material increase in the mileage of snowmobile trails as they existed in 1972 when the SLUMP was adopted.  The state has purchased hundreds of thousands of additional acres of private Adirondack land with snowmobile trails since that time.  The SLUMP should be amended to include all of those trails as part of the mileage and it has not been.