The Adirondack Council

News Release

RELEASED, Wednesday, February 13, 2002

RAY BROOK, N.Y. -- The Adirondack Park Agency is expected to approve a new policy tomorrow (Thursday) for the review of telecommunications tower proposals, which the Park's leading environmental organization calls a vast improvement over the draft developed by an industry consultant.

"We are very pleased that the Park Agency's commissioners were receptive to ideas that the consultant had obviously tuned out," said Adirondack Council Acting Executive Director and Counsel Bernard C. Melewski. "The APA heard our call and is now sending different signals to the industry. We are grateful that the commissioners integrated nearly every new component we suggested. The policy is much improved."

Changes made in January to the draft presented to the APA in August by the LA Group of Saratoga include:

• Elimination of the idea that the APA should "encourage" tower development in the Adirondacks. The new draft refers to towers only as "potentially compatible" with developed areas of the Park (villages, hamlets, etc.).
• New criteria for the term "substantially invisible," which places the burden on the applicant to demonstrate that a tower proposal is as hidden as it practically can be. Each tower would require a site-specific aesthetic review.
• Recognition that local governments may enact stricter regulations than the APA and have them considered during APA's review of the project.
• Specific language was added to better protect scenic vistas, local view sheds and historic resources when new tower locations are chosen.

"As the rest of the Northeast becomes more urbanized and tamed, the unspoiled beauty of the Adirondack Park's vast landscapes becomes more valuable every day," Melewski said. "Tourism is, by far, the most important Park industry. Even if we were to ignore the ecological impacts of new towers, we must take seriously the importance of scenery. Ten million visitors come to the Adirondacks each year precisely because there is no other place like it. Is there another place within a day's drive of 90 million people where you can climb a hill and look out to the horizon, seeing nothing but soaring birds, sparkling lakes and unbroken forest?

"The more we make the Adirondack Park look like home, the fewer reasons people will have to come here. Ill-considered siting policies for shiny steel towers would destroy the Park's scenic beauty in a few short years. We are hopeful that the APA commissioners recognize that danger."