For Immediate Release: June 7, 2001
Contact:
Victoria Hristovski | Director Public Information | Adirondack Park Agency
contact@apa.ny.gov | (518) 891-4050
RAY BROOK - At this month’s Adirondack Park Agency meeting, Agency members will meet for three days beginning on Wednesday, June 13th until Friday, June 15th, at its headquarters in Ray Brook.
On Wednesday, Agency members and staff will meet in the large conference room at the headquarters in Ray Brook for a strategic planning work session. Strategic team leaders will be meeting to discuss the groups’ efforts of the past year-and-a-half. Efforts include a continuation of regulatory reform efforts and public outreach. The work session will be held from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
Agency members will welcome a new member of staff on Thursday, June 14th. Dr. Sean Connin has been hired as the Associate Project Analyst, Fresh Water for the Agency. Sean worked as an Associate Professor and Director of the Adirondack Aquatic Institute at Paul Smith’s College for the past year. Sean grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York and now resides in Saranac Lake. He received a Masters of Forest Science from Yale University in 1992, followed by a PhD in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College in 1996. Sean has since worked as a Research Associate at the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory and the University of Arkansas. He enjoys picking the banjo, hiking, and travel.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m., the Regulatory Programs Committee will meet and discuss three projects applications: A nine-hole golf course in the Town of Newcomb, Essex County; a shoreline structure setback variance in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, and a shoreline structure setback variance in Altamont, Franklin County.
The Town of Chesterfield’s request for Agency approval of its Local Land Use Program will be considered by the Local Government Services Committee at 1 p.m. on Thursday. If approved, Chesterfield will be the 16th community in the Park to administer an Agency approved local land use program. Chesterfield’s program, which was initiated with a 1977 plan (updated in 2000), includes regulations to protect the rural character of the Town while encouraging sound growth. As part of the program, the zoning law, initially prepared by consultant Joel Russell, and adopted in 1997, provides for a wide range of uses which respond to the needs of affordable housing and small scale economic development, with an approach which looks at development on a case by case basis, rather than a uniform approach for every proposal. The Agency will be reviewing this example of a ‘new generation’ of local programs which provide for development potential within the overall landscape pattern of the community. The approval of the Chesterfield program would transfer authority over Class B regional projects to the town, once the town adopts the revised program.
During the Park Ecology Committee, which will be split with Local Government Services Committee beginning at 1:30 p.m., Sunita Halasz, from the Resource Analysis Services division at the Agency, will report on the Peatland Watershed Study for the St. Regis River Basin Watershed/Wetlands Protection Project. The report focuses on the surface water hydrology of four large, unique peatlands, each over 1000 acres in size, in the northern Adirondacks.
The State Land Committee is scheduled to meet from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Thursday. Committee members will discuss a draft on proposed Agency policy on Unit Management Plan (UMP) review. The proposed policy clarifies timelines and procedures for the Agency’s review of UMP’s in the Adirondack Park. The policy would establish a maximum 45 day review period for the initial draft of a unit management plan. It sets out reporting and consulation procedures between Agency staff and the board and establishes a preference for a two-meeting cycle for final review of a UMP. This draft is being presented to the State Land Committee meeting for initial discussion. Also during the State Land Committee meeting, an amendment to the Whiteface Mountain ski area UMP will be presented for action by the Agency. The amendment makes adjustments to a previously approved trail to meet international standards for competitive events.
The APA will take a major step forward in its ongoing efforts to improve the Agency’s enforcement program, when Agency staff will introduce a draft of new regulations for its administrative enforcement process on Thursday at the enforcement committee meeting. The draft regulations are intended to clarify the Agency’s enforcement process and to make it more efficient and effective, all in keeping with the laws that the Agency administers. After the presentation of the draft regulations to the Agency, a rigorous review of the regulations will occur, including extensive public involvement and consultation with a technical advisory group formed to review proposed Agency regulations, with oversight from the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform.
Friday’s Agency meeting will be highlighted by a panel discussion and presentation of issues and trends in the region’s forest products industry. The panel discussion will take place during the Economic Affairs Committee on Friday beginning at 9 a.m. Panelists will include Kevin King, Executive Vice President of Empire State Forest Products Association; Dr. Edwin White, Dean of Research, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University; Carl Golas, Wood Products Specialist, Adirondack North Country Association and Pieter Litchfield, President, Litchfield Park Corporation.
As always, Agency meetings are open to the public. The Agency is also continuing the policy of a public comment period at the beginning and end of each meeting.