The Adirondack Council

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John F. Sheehan
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, February 4, 2003

RAY BROOK, NY -- The Adirondack Park Agency has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against the land-use regulator by The Adirondack Council last summer. The Council had objected to the agency's decision to stop requiring permits for converting homes into bed and breakfast tourist accommodations in the most remote areas of the Park.

The Council's concerns centered on the inadequacy of residential septic systems when homes are converted to tourist accommodations and increased human activity in the Park's most remote areas. In its settlement with the Council, the Park Agency formally recognized that it must require a permit from those seeking to convert homes to bed and breakfast inns, in two specific areas of the Park. The first is land classified as "resource management," which consist mostly of unbroken commercial forests and large private estates. The second is shoreline lands within the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System.

"We didn't want to file this lawsuit, but we didn't have any choice," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "We didn't object to making it easier to create B&Bs in established communities. But we felt strongly that the APA could not ignore its obligation to protect the wildest, least developed areas of the Park. The result of the lawsuit is that the agency will once again be obligated to conduct a thorough review of the consequences of creating tourist accommodations in these areas."

The Council's lawsuit was brought following a decision by the APA in March of 2002 to alter its own regulations by dropping the permit requirement for converting a home, and up to five bedrooms within it, into a bed and breakfast inn. Houses must be at least five years old to qualify for the exemption. The Council objected to only a portion of the rule change -- where it affected the Park's least developed areas. The Council argued that the Legislature had required the APA to protect these two areas from a proliferation of inappropriate commercial tourist operations.

"The settlement doesn't ban the conversion of private homes to B&Bs in these areas," Houseal said. "It merely requires the developer to show that the B&B won't harm its surroundings before obtaining a permit from the APA. The APA can require things like a test of the septic system, to make sure that it exists, that it's adequate for the number of bedrooms to be converted and that it's working. Without requiring a permit, the APA wouldn't even know how many homes were being converted."

Tourism in the Adirondack Park is booming, with some areas reporting 2002 sales tax increases of 20 percent and more over 2001, which had also seen a substantial increase over 2000.

The Adirondack Council was represented in the case by Douglas Ward, Esq., of the Albany law firm of Young & Sommer.

The Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and human communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.