APA official confirms ACR project underway following Oxbow gift

by Dan McClelland

A recent letter from a top-ranking Adirondack Park Agency official confirms what Adirondack Club and Resort developer Michael Foxman and Mayor and County Legislator Paul Maroun discovered in recent weeks. That gift of the 34-acre Oxbow parcel from Preserve Associates LLC to the Wild Center that was announced in recent weeks also constitutes the start of the 6,235-acre development.

Mr. Maroun, a member of the Wild Center board, assisted Mr. Foxman in facilitating the addition of the Oxbow parcel to the Wild Center campus and in doing so discovered, what the attorneys in the matter hadn't, the gift keeps the ACR permit alive.

Mr. Foxman told the Free Press in early January that Mr. Maroun found “the provision the attorneys missed that he thought should be included in the deed and he was absolutely right.”

He explained that under the Adirondack Park Agency permit for the ACR, the Oxbow property transfer means “the project has commenced.”

The permit was due to expire on January 22, 2022.

In a letter this month to ACR attorney Thomas Ulasewicz, Robert J. Lore, deputy director of regulatory programs at the APA, confirmed the project has officially started.

The following is his letter:

“Thank you for your letter and associated documents, received by the agency by electronic mail on January 17, 2022, and January 20, 2022.

The information you submitted indicates that the 34-acre museum lot authorized by Agency Order P2005-0100 was conveyed to the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks by deed dated December 9, 2021, and filed in the Franklin County Clerk’s Office on December 29, 2021. Accordingly, I can confirm that the 6,235-acre project described and authorized in Agency Order P2005-0100 is in existence. The remaining individual permits described in Order P2005-0100 will be issued by the Agency as a non-discretionary act as described in and pursuant to the terms of the order.”