Concerns surface on related APA headquarters relocation plan
By Gwendolyn Craig
The first step in what may be a domino line for the Adirondack Park Agency to move its headquarters to the village of Saranac Lake was taken last week: a subdivision permit that would kick off the village’s plans for a new 70,000-square-foot public safety complex on Petrova Avenue. The proposed complex would allow for the village’s police department to relocate from the historic Paul Smith’s Power and Light Building on Main Street, freeing that space for the APA.
Some have taken issue with the agency’s piecemeal review. They argue it’s ignoring its own rules and regulations that call for analyzing “development proposed for lots, parcels or sites in a subdivision.”
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The state allocated $29 million for the agency’s headquarters, which are currently in Ray Brook. APA Executive Director Barbara Rice is spearheading plans to relocate from the complex on state Route 86, which includes State Police, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Transportation, to the village main street.
The agency, charged with long-range planning for the 6-million-acre mix of public and private lands, is studying the feasibility of the move. The space at 1-3 Main St. cannot accommodate the needs of the agency alone, thus it also plans to build a 19,000-square-foot building behind it and a 72-space parking lot.
Two village residents appeared before the APA board at its monthly meeting, concerned that the APA was not considering the larger scope. The subdivision permit, granted to Citizen Advocates Inc. and Advocate Hostels Holdings Inc., includes the former St. Pius X High School, the Citizen Advocate’s building and a complex of storage buildings. The subdivision permit was granted on Oct. 19 at the staff level. APA Communications Director Keith McKeever said it is a “minor project,” so it does not require a board vote or public comment period.
Mark Wilson of Saranac Lake called the permit “a textbook example of segmentation,” before the APA board on Oct. 12. He is concerned the agency seems to be disregarding the village’s plans to develop the site, and it has a stake in the outcome.
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“The reason the agency should share my concern over this application is that you are not a disinterested party in this matter,” he said. “Your interest in relocating agency headquarters to the current building housing the Saranac Lake Police Department will create an urgent need to relocate that headquarters. … I urge the agency to carefully conduct a review of the entire project for which this application is merely the initial segment.”
Mary Thill, also a village resident and wife of Wilson, had similar concerns. She and her husband received responses from the agency that said it “does not have review authority over any hypothetical future conveyances or proposals related to any project site.”
Thill held up the village’s renderings for the public safety complex to the APA board members and noted the number of public meetings held on the plans.
“This is anything but hypothetical,” she said. “I think everyone knows this is part of the project.”
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Rice gave a monthly report to board members after. She did not mention the headquarters or address Wilson and Thill’s comments.
McKeever did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Thill and Wilson’s concerns or the status of the agency’s feasibility study.
The subdivision permit involving wetlands creates two lots. Citizen Advocates would keep its building, while the village of Saranac Lake would acquire the 15-acre lot that includes the former school and storage buildings, according to the APA application, for potential “use for emergency services.”
The final issued permit states “no new land use or development is proposed or authorized as part of the project,” despite the application’s acknowledgement of possible future construction on the site. It also notes construction of any new buildings within 100 feet of the edge of wetlands “shall require prior written Agency authorization,” and any activity involving the nearby wetlands will require another permit.
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Although the agency has not sought public comment on its proposed headquarters, a records request to the agency turned up 19 pages of letters. The majority are in support of the move, including resolutions from the village of Saranac Lake, the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and the town of Harrietstown.
“This is an exciting opportunity to further the APA’s commitment to Adirondack hamlets as the centers for development and actively and to directly further your positive commitment to downtowns, building upon several state investments in recent years in downtown Saranac Lake,” wrote the North Country Chamber of Commerce.
Adirondack Voters for Change requested the agency hold a public meeting to address a “lack of detail.” An earlier letter sent by a cohort of former APA leaders and staff against the relocation was also part of the record.
Executive Director Barbara Rice seems to be skating very close to bounds of legality and procedure. What exactly are the incentives for the APA to relocate?
Todd,
What laws are you suggesting that she is close to breaking here?
I missed anything here about “incentives”?
I have said this before and will say this again, why not just stay in Raybrook and take the monies allocated for the project and upgrade and improve the existing campus?
Gwen, Gwen, Gwen….
What happens when the village, if they do ever decide to buy this lot from citizen advocates, and if they ever do decide to build this project, designs the site so that they are outside of the wetland and its buffer and keeps the building under 40 feet? There would be no segmentation because the agency would have no jurisdiction over the redevelopment of an already developed site. I think the property is in the hamlet too which limits what APA can get their hands on. It’s a big nothing burger.
The police department and fire were moving out there anyway right?
Compliments to the reporter for covering this minor permit, and to the public speakers at the APA on Oct. 12 for raising the potential conflict of interest and segmentation issue. At the very least, APA staff should have acknowledged in the permit the well known village proposed development on one of the lots being sudivided. Going further, agency counsel should have advised the executive director that this minor permit be elevated to the full agency for full disclosure and discussion purposes, including the Agency’s related and very public interest in relocation to the village police station. APA is not acting transparently in this matter.
Why would they need to mention it Dave? The permit Gwen posted here clearly says no additional development is authorized by the subdivision and that any additional proposal jurisdictional to the agency would require additional permitting. That same condition, according to the agency website, is in a lot of other agency subdivision permits. What happens when this conceptual public safety building goes away or, at the very least, is possibly proposed more than 100 feet from a wetland and is under 49 feet in height? Won’t be anything for the agency to review, and you’ll have no leg to stand on.
The NYS Armory up the road appears to be unused. It is the right size. It already has parking. Presumably NYS would give it to the APA.
Of course, having an available building might not appeal to conservationists who want to build a seventy-car parking lot on the edge of the Saranac River, on the residential side of the Village, accessed by a narrow bridge, across a busy highway.
I don’t think an old “armory” building is the same as a modern office building? Using that with all the renovations might even cost more than a new place.
The Armory appears to be much better built than any other building in the Village. Why not consider it? I am not an expert, but I have eyes.
How do you know that they didn’t consider it?
George, you mean build a 70 lot parking lot along the saranac river where a 70 car lot already exists? You’re right, where do these people come up with these ideas?!? Madness I tell you!!
Very funny. Looking at the rendering at the top of this article, the new building will replace the existing parking lot, and the new parking lot will stretch along the river. It will always be full. Every car will cross a narrow bridge to access it. The design of the new lot is not the same as the current one. The new building is needed because the Paul Smith’s building is much too small. The NYS Armory is the perfect size, but it does not provide the satisfaction of forcing the Village to accept a project it does not need, and place it in a residential neighborhood, just because a few politicians with clout, limited vision, and dubious environmental concerns, can force it.