The Adirondack Park Agency unanimously approved an affordable housing project in Essex County’s town of North Elba on Thursday, which if approved by the town’s planning board next month, will add 22 homes to the area.
Called Fox Hill, the development planned off Algonquin Drive and state Route 86 is the latest project by Homestead Development Corp., a Lake Placid nonprofit focused on developing affordable housing. The corporation already has a similar project, 16 townhomes in Lake Placid, called Fawn Valley.
The Fox Hill development will include 16 cape-style, single-family dwellings and three duplexes. The development is connected to municipal water and sewer.
The agency, which oversees public and private development in the Adirondack Park, said it received about a half dozen comments. Most of the concerns raised were about traffic increasing, but Homestead Development Corp. provided a traffic study projecting little change to congestion.
Those in support highlighted the need for more affordable housing in the area. The homes are slated to sell for $220,000 to $270,000 to applicants that meet the income restrictions of 200% of the Area Medium Income (AMI), or less than $183,800 for a four-person household.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation and other state agencies are also reviewing the project, besides the town planning board.
APA members had questions about the development’s setback to wetlands. The site included a culvert in wetlands and some of the houses within a 100-foot setback.
“Do you think that we, because this is, I don’t know the right terminology, affordable housing or thoughtful workforce housing, that that had an impact on how we review this, and we allowed a little more density?” said Arthur Lussi, an APA board member and a Lake Placid business owner. “I don’t recall us allowing people to go over 100 foot setbacks.”
Devan Korn, an environmental program specialist with the APA, said the agency found there would be no impact to the wetland from the development except for the expansion of the existing culvert. The culvert, however, is expected to better protect the environment.
Korn said the housing density is tight, but it is legally allowed.
APA board member Jose Almanzar was absent.
Adjudicatory hearing update
The APA board also voted to allow Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve to be a party in a special hearing on whether to permit an artillery testing range in the town of Lewis.
Unconventional Concepts Inc., a private military consulting firm, has sought to test-fire howitzers in the Essex County town. The APA authorized an adjudicatory hearing, which is like a trial before an administrative law judge, to decide whether or not to permit the project. Such hearings are the only way the agency can substantially modify or deny a permit.
Matthew Norfolk, attorney for Unconventional Concepts’ president Michael Hopmeier, had moved to deny Adirondack Wild’s participation. Norfolk argued that the organization’s petition for party status did not satisfy the hearing’s requirements. For example, it did not provide the history of its formation, he argued. Adirondack Wild later provided more documentation.
David Greenwood, the state Department of Environmental Conservation administrative law judge overseeing the hearing, ruled against Norfolk’s objection and allowed Adirondack Wild to participate.
Norfolk filed an appeal, which went before the board on Thursday.
APA board members had little to say on the matter, but unanimously voted in favor of keeping Greenwood’s decision and allowing Adirondack Wild to be a party.
The hearing is expected to begin on April 22, although Norfolk’s lawsuit seeking the hearing’s dismissal has a new hearing date just two days before on April 20 in state Supreme Court in Essex County. The lawsuit alleges several conflicts of interest.
APA Board Member Rush Holt Jr. abstained from the board vote, noting he is a party in Norfolk’s lawsuit. Norfolk has alleged Holt’s membership with the Adirondack Council, an environmental organization against the howitzer testing project and a party to the hearing, is a conflict of interest.
Holt dismissed any conflict of interest, but said he would recuse himself so that the board vote would go smoothly.
APA staffing
Keith McKeever, the APA’s communications director, announced that the agency is nearly up to full staff with 53 out of 59.
The new hires come after a string of resignations at the end of last year, including the agency’s top lawyer Damion Stodola, and the agency’s head of human resources, Elaine Caldwell.
McKeever also welcomed a new assistant public information officer, Mary Newman Fox. Fox takes the place of Ben Brosseau, who left in November.
Fox is a Saranac Lake native with a background in video and multimedia journalism. She has a master’s degree in new media journalism and video reporting from UC Berkeley.
