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The Adirondack Park
Agency will hold a public hearing next month on a proposal to build
12 condominiums opposite the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in
Wilmington.
Saratoga Springs-based developer
ACO Properties wants to construct the luxury condos over the former
White Stag Inn, a 20,000-square-foot hotel dating from the 1950s
that’s been vacant for nearly 30 years.
The project - tentatively called
Whiteface Overlook - has already received strong support from
Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward as well as “conceptual support” from
the Town of Wilmington.
APA Commissioners were told there
are a number of concerns including the design of the septic systems,
a stormwater plan and the size and intensity of the project as a
whole.
“We think you should allow this
applicant to move forward but it may not be 12 units in the end,”
APA planner Skip Outcault told the APA’s regulatory affairs
committee on Thursday.
The scope of the development relies
on the applicant being able to convert the building rights it had
from the hotel property. Whether the applicant should be allowed to
tear down the former hotel to construct 12 condos is still an open
question.
APA Commissioner Dick Booth
expressed skepticism that the conversion would be appropriate in
this case.
“I think the purpose of the statute
was to convert existing structures,” he said.
The developer intends to tear down
the existing structure and replace it with more energy efficient
buildings, according to the pre-application.
APA Commissioner Lani
Ulrich said that while efficiency is laudable, she is concerned with
the principle of tearing down older structures even if the former
White Stag Inn is likely not historically significant.
“It’s something that we did as a
country several decades ago,” she said. “I don’t want to see us lose
the architectural heritage of the park.”
Commissioners will set a public
hearing for September 10 - the eve of their next monthly meeting -
at a time and place to be finalized. The project is still in the
pre-application phase and commissioners have only reviewed the
concept of the proposal.
In other action, a key APA
committee has approved a 100-foot cell phone tower that will fill a
seven-mile stretch of dead-zone along the Adirondack Northway in
Essex County.
The 100-foot tower
was approved by a unanimous vote of the Regulatory Programs
Committee and would provide service to at least three - and perhaps
more - cellular phone carriers including Unicell, AT&T and Cingular.
Located west of state Route 9 in
the Town of Lewis, the tower will provide space for up to four
separate carriers, said APA planner Skip Outcault, who added that
another carrier, T-Mobile has reportedly expressed interest in the
site.
“It will provide opportunities for
co-location,” he said.
The full agency board
is expected to sign off on the project today.
-Jacob Resneck,
8-8-08
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