Trophy Homes
Baxter Mountian tragedy
By Robert R. Worth
A wave of crimes is spreading over the Adirondacks.
It’s just beginning—as yet there has been no public
outcry—but its potential for despoiling our Adirondack paradise
is alarming.
For me the most upsetting of these crimes has been perpetrated on
those who like to hike up my favorite mountain, Baxter, in Keene
Valley. Baxter is beloved by many people. It can be a moderate climb,
if done from Beede’s Farm at the top of Beede Road, or an
easy one, if done from Route 9N. It has many summits with glorious
views sweeping from Lake Champlain to the Great Range and beyond.
Until last year, all one could see upon arriving at the first summit
was the magnificent rolling green of the Adirondacks, dominated
by Giant Mountain high in the distance. Now, right in the middle
of that breathtaking expanse, is a very large private home.
 |
To anyone who has climbed Baxter many times over many summers that
all-too-visible building is a distressing sight. The Adirondacks
are so vulnerable to inappropriate development! Half a dozen imposing
homes have been built in the last few years that are situated so
as to provide spectacular views to the owner at the expense of all
who were expecting to see the handiwork of nature rather than Homo
sapiens.
I am told that the owners of the home that so intrudes upon the
view from Baxter are very nice people. Do they ever have qualms,
I wonder, about what they’ve done? The architect of the house
and the real-estate broker who sold the land are also fine people.
Do they ever have second thoughts about the roles they’ve
played?
In other parts of the country an ostentatious new house on a mountainside
isn’t necessarily anything to get upset about. Are the Adirondacks
to be no different? One of the prime rewards of climbing mountains
here is to behold at the summit a vision of untrammeled wilderness.
Such views evoke Stephen Vincent Benet’s lines:
When Daniel Boone goes by, at night,
The phantom deer arise
And all lost, wild America
Is burning in their eyes.
A hundred years ago the region was ravaged by timber companies.
Now, thanks to Mother Nature and the “forever wild”
clause of the state constitution, we have it back. Are we going
to let it be spoiled again, this time by lovers of the Adirondacks
rather than loggers?
No doubt everyone who visits the owners congratulates them on their
fabulous house and their fantastic view. (Though one day they, in
turn, may be upset by a family who has had the temerity to build
a pretentious house across from them, on the shoulder of Baxter.)
And little by little, if no one is rude enough to object, the splendid
houses will climb up the hillsides, suburbanizing the Adirondack
landscape. No laws will be broken, but a tragedy will have occurred—unless,
somehow, we can call a halt now, when it’s only beginning
to be too late.
Are there no laws that prevent buildings above certain elevations
or building codes that require structures to harmonize with their
surroundings? The Adirondack Park Agency was created 30 years ago
to preserve the natural character of the region by controlling development
on private lands. But what use is the APA if such obtrusive buildings
are permitted and such unsuitable building sites are not off limits?
To prevent crimes from being committed, society imposes punishments.
If that remedy isn’t available, shame can also be a potent
deterrent. A more positive process—one that I guess many of
us had been counting on—is to instill a respect for nature
and for others. Call it an Adirondack ethic. My wife and I have
friends who’ve built houses here in the last few years, some
of them quite grand, but they have been considerate of their neighbors
and of the values that brought them to the Adirondacks in the first
place.
It takes only a few who are unmindful of that ethic, however, to
degrade this special part of the world for everyone else. How can
we prevent these in-all-other-ways good people from committing these
crimes? How can we dissuade architects, real-estate agents, and
builders—honorable people all—from aiding and abetting
them?
Any ideas? Please share your thoughts with me via the Explorer.
A public debate could reveal ways to end this blight before more
damage is done.
Robert Worth divides his time between the Adirondacks
and New York City.
|
