‘ADVERSARIAL’

Environmentalists at the Adirondack Council were not pleased with the decision to end mediation.

“It is unfortunate that the applicant has decided to abandon the cooperative approach agreed to by all parties to the mediation and instead wants to enter the more confrontational and adversarial adjudication,” John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said in a statement Tuesday.

“The hearing will look very much like a court proceeding, with expert witnesses and testimony and attorneys both examining and cross-examining those witnesses.”

The Adirondack Council combined efforts with nearly 30 concerned Tupper Lake landowners in the mediation process.

They said many issues remain unresolved, chief among them questions of financing large real-estate development in a challenging economy.

The mediation agreement did not include “sufficient information to address the project sponsor’s current financial capacity to advance the project and reopen the (Big Tupper) Ski Center,” the council and landowners said.

BUFFER ZONE

Environmentalists also recommended six “great camp” lots on Oval Wood Dish property around the Ski Center — more than 2,727 acres, or almost half of the project property — be sold into a land trust or transferred for public ownership.

The acreage would provide a kind of buffer zone between developed areas and the wilderness Follenby Pond Park property, recently purchased by the Nature Conservancy for eventual addition to the state Forest Preserve.

“An outstanding opportunity also exists for the Town of Tupper Lake to acquire or otherwise obtain a tract that could serve as a public parking, interpretive and recreation area and the entry point for non-motorized access to Follensby,” the Adirondack Council and Tupper Lake landowners said in a closure statement.

CONCERNS