Zoning board approves building controversial vacation home on historic shoreline
By Tim Rowland
The Indian Lake Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a variance Monday evening that will allow a family to build a 6,290-square-foot vacation home on Blue Mountain Lake, over the concerns of neighbors worried that it will environmentally and spiritually damage a prominent, wooded point on the small hamlet’s rustic lakeshore.
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About 30 people attended the hearing and listened quietly as the decision was read.
“Naturally, we believe the correct decision was made,” said Matthew Skinner, attorney for the applicant Bryan Weiss. “Mr. Weiss has been coming up here every year for many, many years, and he cares about the lake just as much as everybody else.”
Skinner praised the zoning board for following the law over public sentiment — which was overwhelmingly on the side of the opponents — and said it reflects well on its ability to fairly consider community projects.
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Historic family business leads community dismay over project
Opponents had the exact opposite take. “We rely on this publicly appointed body not to act solely in our interest, but in the interests of the entire community and the local economy,” said Reed Curry, a member of the family that for generations has operated a collection of cabins on a sandy beach that is iconic for a row of sunset-facing Adirondack chairs, and as a stage of the 90 Miler canoe competition. “And through this year-and-a-half-long process, I see that it has failed, and I suspect that it’s failed in other cases besides just ours.”
Opponents of the project indicated they may appeal the decision in court, an outcome some town officials said was a likely outcome no matter which side won.
Skinner said the applicants were notified by the Adirondack Park Agency that it had no authority to consider the project, which is in the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake. Hamlets are generally outside the purview of the agency.
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Building plans spark size concerns, require substantial tree cutting
Legally, the matter before the zoning board boiled down to a variance sought by applicants to build within 20 feet of the shoreline on the footprint of an old, 960-square-foot camp that will be torn down. The standard shoreline setback is 75 feet.
Weiss’ proposed home is on a 0.66-acre lot and would require substantial tree cutting, actions that the Currys said would “tower” over their property and disrupt the scenic shoreline and change the complexion of the hamlet. The Currys said they did not object to a reasonably sized home, but that the one being proposed is simply too big. Skinner said the owners had originally proposed a 9,000-foot structure, but had scaled it back in light of community concerns.
Residents fear development precedent, board defends controversial decision
Opponents formed a Blue Mountain Lake friends group and sent a letter with 120 signatures in opposition to the zoning board. In the letter, their attorneys argued that the board had authority to consider the precedent projects have on future development, and that such a large home could be the first domino in the wholesale replacement of the typically small cottages that dot the shoreline with outsized vacation homes. “This would change Blue Mountain Lake from its current low development, largely forested, quintessentially Adirondack shoreline, to one dominated by McMansions,” the letter states.
But the zoning board wasn’t sold. In a lengthy resolution it contended that the opposition had little to do with the variance under consideration.
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“This variance application provides a unique situation in which the vast majority of opposition was not focused on the actual variance sought, but rather the overall size of the otherwise lawful proposed structure,” it stated.
The board also wrote that a full 75-foot setback would result in a worse outcome, putting the home closer to neighbors and the road.
“(The board) does not find that there will be any significant impacts upon the lake or any lakeside neighbors or to the general public,” the resolution stated. “On the other hand, (were) the structure to be placed within 10 feet of the roadway and adjacent lands to the south, now used as cabin rental business, the magnitude of the impacts on adjacent properties would be far greater.”
The board also dismissed concerns raised over tree-cutting, storm water runoff and the septic system, saying either that the applicant’s engineers had adequately addressed concerns, or the issues fell outside the board’s purview.
Bob Curry said the rental-cain property has been in his family since the 1800s, and that part of Blue Mountain Lake’s charm is that it has not succumbed to large, modern development that has come to ring so many other lakes.
“I’ve got postcards, and (the view of the peninsula) hasn’t changed since the turn of the last century,” said Bob’s wife Carrie Moodie. “And essentially, that’s all going to be gone.”
Photo at top: The peninsula in the middle of the photo is where the new home would be built.
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