PRESS RELEASE

 

For Immediate Release:                               Contact:

Friday, March 14, 2008                                     Paul Ertelt, (518) 449-3870,

                                                                      paulertelt@adk.org

Belleayre Resort Plan Raises Constitutional Issues

The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) today praised the state Department of Environmental Conservation for scaling back its proposed expansion of the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in the Catskills. Under the modified project plan, DEC has scrapped the proposed Belleayre East ski lift and trails, which would have included trails in the environmentally sensitive Cathedral Glen.

But ADK is deeply concerned about the proposal to create ski-in, ski-out trail access from the state-owned ski center to the Belleayre resort complex, which would be developed by the private Crossroads Ventures.

“The plan calls for cutting trees, blasting, removing rocks and altering slopes on Catskill Forest Preserve land to construct trails and lifts for the sole benefit of a private company,’’ said ADK Executive Director Neil F. Woodworth. “That appears to fly in the face of Article 14 of the state Constitution, which protects Forest Preserve land as forever wild.”

Woodworth urged DEC to seek a legal opinion from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo before proceeding with the plan.

According to a May 1947 Attorney General Opinion, the original constitutional amendment authorizing development of the ski center “would not seem to authorize the construction on forest preserve lands of ski trails and appurtenances thereto intended primarily to supplement or complement an essentially private development located on adjacent privately owned lands.”
 
DEC also plans to acquire about 78 acres of the former Highmount Ski Center to accommodate a westward expansion of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. Because that land is within the Catskill Park, ADK questions whether DEC can legally acquire the land for expansion of the ski center without seeking a further amendment to Article 14.  

Some at DEC contend that the acquisition is allowed under the 1947 and 1986 constitutional amendments, which authorized the creation and expansion of the original ski center. ADK asserts that the 1947 and 1986 amendments apply only to lands actually owned by the state at the time of voter approval. Because the proposed Highmount acquisition was not part of the Forest Preserve in 1947 or 1986, those amendments cannot support tree cutting and alteration of the “wild forest character” of this property. The voters could not have consented to the alteration of land that was not part of the Forest Preserve at the time that the amendments were passed.

Woodworth outlined concerns about the project in a March 13 letter to DEC Commissioner Alexander “Pete” Grannis.

The Adirondack Mountain Club, founded in 1922, is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting the New York State Forest Preserve and other wild lands and waters through conservation and advocacy, environmental education and responsible recreation.


Click here to read ADK's letter to Commissioner Grannis.