Thomas Sciacca, in his Oct. 12 letter "Lawsuit forced closure of resort," is not accurate.
Mr. Sciacca attempts to assign blame for ARISE's failure to reopen the Big Tupper Ski Area to the lawsuit by Protect the Adirondacks and the Sierra Club that challenges the Adirondack Park Agency's approval of a series of permits for the 6,000-acre Adirondack Club & Resort project in Tupper Lake that surrounds the ski area.
The importance of this project to the whole Adirondack Park goes well beyond Tupper Lake and the Big Tupper Ski Area.
The ACR project is the largest subdivision ever approved by the APA, and its approval has set what we believe is a ruinous precedent for hundreds of thousands of acres that are classified as "resource management" and could guide the review process for scores of subdivisions in the decades ahead.
It is the belief of the plaintiffs that the APA's approval violated state law and regulations in a number of areas. This lawsuit deals with important and serious issues.
The groups are sympathetic to the aspirations of many in the Tupper Lake community to reopen the Big Tupper Ski Area, but while the lawsuit has become a convenient scapegoat for many of the community's problems, it's simply not accurate to say that it caused the ski area to close.
There is a permit from the APA to operate the ski area, which does not stop people from investing in it.
Even with the lawsuit pending, the developer could have completed the permitting process for the ski area and begun work there, but chose not to do so before the APA approval of the project expired this past summer. The problems facing the ski area have more to do with light snow years, the owner's decision to sell off much of the vital snowmaking equipment and the lack of money behind this project.
The protection of the Adirondack Park has been a bipartisan, multigenerational commitment for more than 100 years.
The park's open space landscape is too vital and important to risk on a highly questionable review process that we do not believe will survive thorough legal scrutiny.
Peter Bauer
Executive director
Protect the Adirondacks
Lake George