Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor
Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Adirondack Council
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve
Environmental Advocates of New York
Protect the Adirondacks
Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter

Dear Governor Hochul:

2023 presents major challenges and great opportunities for the Adirondack Park. The year will kick off with the World University Games in Lake Placid and North Creek, a major event where the eyes of world will be on the Adirondack Park. The State of New York has invested heavily to make sure that the games will be successful. In your first full term as Governor, the coming year also creates an opportunity for your Administration to put its stamp on the Adirondack Park Agency (APA)—and to add desperately needed new talent and experience to the APA—by appointing a slate of highly qualified APA Board members to fill expired terms.

The organizations listed above believe that the APA needs Board members who understand the need for a course correction at the Agency. In recent years, the APA has drifted from its core mission, which is to ensure that development on private lands is appropriate and ecologically sound and that management by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) of publicly owned Forest Preserve lands complies with the “Forever Wild” clause of the New York State Constitution and the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. Over the past decade, the APA has made a number of questionable decisions relating to their statutory, regulatory and administrative obligations, as evidenced by the following. We hope you will see the opportunity to bring in new experts after reviewing these examples:

• In 2021, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the APA had violated Article 14, section 1 of the State Constitution which states, in pertinent part, that “[t]he lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.” The ruling was the culmination of years of advocacy and litigation challenging the planned establishment by DEC, and approval by APA, of a vast network of extra-wide snowmobile trails on Forest Preserve lands. As the guardian of “Forever Wild” constitutional protections, the APA approved flawed plans submitted by DEC that included unconstitutional snowmobile trails. In doing so, the Agency went against public warnings that the Agency’s approval of DEC’s plans violated the Forever Wild clause of the State Constitution. It took eight years of litigation, culminating in the Court of Appeals decision,1 to compel the APA to recognize that its actions did not pass constitutional muster.

• In May 2022, only one year after the constitutional rebuke handed down by the Court of Appeals, the APA began an administrative decision-making process to “interpret” Wild Forest Basic Guideline No. 4 in the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, which governs roads in Forest Preserve lands classified as Wild Forest. The Guideline states that “[p]ublic use of motor vehicles will not be encouraged” and that there can be “no material increase” in road mileage on Wild Forest lands from 1972 levels. Seizing on the “no material increase” phrase, the APA is now considering three interpretations of the Guideline, each of which will allow substantial increases in road mileage on Wild Forest lands. Once again, public comments have raised the inconsistency of the APA’s proposed interpretations of the Guideline with the Forever Wild clause, but the Agency has to date failed to offer any constitutional analysis of or justification for its proposed action.

• The 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) requires all State agencies to consider greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when issuing permits, approvals or administrative decisions2. The APA has yet to adopt any regulations or policies to assess climate change impacts, including GHG emissions, as part of its permit review process and administrative decisions. Repeated public comments submitted to the APA pointing out the need for these updates have been met with silence.

• In its first 36 years, the APA Board required 150 adjudicatory public hearings on permit applications. In the last 14 years there have been zero adjudicatory hearings, even though the Agency has approved over 4,000 permit applications. Adjudicatory hearings provide a forum for disputed project issues to be resolved and an opportunity for the public to participate in evaluation of large, controversial projects. The Agency has not required a single adjudicatory hearing in the last 14 years even though a number of large, controversial projects have been permitted, including a new 27-acre granite quarry in the Town of Forestport for which the Agency received hundreds of letters from the public requesting that an adjudicatory hearing be held; the redevelopment of a former Boy Scout camp on Woodworth Lake into an 1,100-acre residential subdivision on lands classified as Resource Management, the most ecologically sensitive and protective private land classification; and a 1,000-acre residential subdivision that, in contrast to fundamental principles of conservation design, fragments an intact forest and rings Woodward Lake.

• In recent years, two environmental leaders in New York State, Professor Richard Booth of Cornell University, and Dr. Chad Dawson, Professor Emeritus at SUNY-ESF, either resigned from the APA Board in protest, or chose not to continue their service, due to their concerns that the Agency has failed to fulfill their statutory responsibilities under the APA Act and the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. Professor Booth is a highly qualified attorney who worked at the APA and DEC, served on the New York State Low Level Radioactive Waste Siting Commission, was elected to the City of Ithaca Common Council three times, and has been a Professor at Cornell University since 1977. Professor Booth resigned in 2016. Dr. Dawson is an expert in his own right, serving as Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness, authoring Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of Resources and Values (the text used by federal and state land managers throughout the country), and teaching at SUNY ESF for 22 years. Dr. Dawson resigned in 2020. Never before in APA history have Board members resigned in protest over the failure of the Agency to comply with the law.

As the above makes clear, the APA is in desperate need of reform. You took laudable actions in the last year, appointing Benita Law-Diao as the first woman of color to the APA, and appointing John Ernst as Chair. The terms of two APA Board members expired in 2022. Two more will expire in 2023. One Board member, whose term expires in 2023 has stated publicly that she will not seek a new term because she is moving to another state. These openings on the Board provide a unique opportunity for you to make your mark on the APA—and on the Adirondack Park—by appointing to the Board individuals who will be better qualified to ensure that the APA fulfills its statutory and constitutional obligation to protect the resources of the Park and to provide rigorous, science-based oversight of private development and DEC’s management of the Forest Preserve.
The organizations listed above call on you to nominate four members to the APA that bring new perspectives, expertise, independence, and competence to APA decisions and administration. We have attached in this package the names and resumes of individuals who, in our judgment, possess the background, education and professional experience to enhance the quality of APA decision making. Here’s the current state of APA Board members:

APA Terms: Current Status

In-Park Board Members
Board Members Status/Expriation Year Appointed Experience
Arthur Lussi (D Essex), Expires (2025), 2006 Business
Andrea Hogan (D Warren),Expires (2023), 2020 Local Gov
Daniel Wilt (R Hamilton) Expires (2023), 2013 Local Gov
Mark Hall (R St. Lawrence) Expires (2022), 2020 Local Gov
Zoe Smith (D Franklin) Expires (2024), 2020 CGA

Out-of-Park Board Members
Board Members Status/Expriation Year Appointed Experience
Benita Law-Diao (D Albany) Expires (2024) 2022 NYSDOH/46r
John Ernst (D New York) Expires (2025) 2016 Landowner
Ken Lynch (R Onondaga) Expires (2022) 2020 DEC Atty

Below you will find a list of recommendations to fill the four seats that are or will become available in 2023:

Warren County
Alan Belenz
John Passacantando

Fulton County
Sidney Harring

Out of Park
Jose Almanzar (Nassau County)
John Caffry (Warren County, outside Park)

The APA Board needs a strong environmental voice. Right now the Board is dominated by local government leaders, business interests, and those with strong ties to the Department of Environmental Conservation. The APA needs independent, environmental voices to help balance and improve the Board.
The organizations listed above stand ready to work with you and the State Senate to fill the APA Board with knowledgeable and independent individuals who are committed to upholding the law and State Constitution and who are passionate about the protection of the Forest Preserve and rural communities of the Adirondack Park.

Sincerely,
Peter Bauer, Executive Director, Protect the Adirondacks
Willie Janeway, Executive Director, Adirondack Council
David Gibson, Managing Partner, Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve Kate Kurera, Deputy Director, Environmental Advocates
Roger Downs, Director of Conservation, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter

CC:
Sita Fey, Deputy Secretary for Appointments and Human Resources
John Ward, Appointments Officer, Executive Chamber
John O’Leary, Deputy Secretary for Energy and Environment
Ashley Dougherty, Assistant Secretary for Environment

 

Below you will find a list of recommendations to fill the four seats that are or will become available in 2023:
Warren County Alan Belenz
John Passacantando
Fulton County Sidney Harring
Out of Park
Jose Almanzar (Nassau County)
John Caffry (Warren County, outside Park)
The APA Board needs a strong environmental voice. Right now the Board is dominated by local government leaders, business interests, and those with strong ties to the Department of Environmental Conservation. The APA needs independent, environmental voices to help balance and improve the Board.

The organizations listed above stand ready to work with you and the State Senate to fill the APA Board with knowledgeable and independent individuals who are committed to upholding the law and State Constitution and who are passionate about the protection of the Forest Preserve and rural communities of the Adirondack Park.

Sincerely,
Peter Bauer, Executive Director, Protect the Adirondacks
Willie Janeway, Executive Director, Adirondack Council
David Gibson, Managing Partner, Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve Kate Kurera, Deputy Director, Environmental Advocates
Roger Downs, Director of Conservation, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter


CC:
Sita Fey, Deputy Secretary for Appointments and Human Resources John Ward, Appointments Officer, Executive Chamber
John O’Leary, Deputy Secretary for Energy and Environment
Ashley Dougherty, Assistant Secretary for Environment