Adirondack Explorer’s writer Jim Odato recently reported a pending sale of 36,000-acre Whitney Industries lands and waters in Long Lake in the Adirondack Park to a Texas developer named Shawn Todd, known for constructing “high-end housing, golf courses, and resorts.”
Given its private land classification, any subdivision and development of Whitney’s current ownership, or their successor’s, will require a permit from the Adirondack Park Agency, or APA.
I look back at Whitney’s past APA permit history and ask: do those past permits have much to say about future land use and development here affecting the character of its lands and waters?
The foundation of the past permits is the APA Act, under which all of Whitney Industries is classified Resource Management (RM), colored green on the APA map. While these RM lands are private, the Act states that the public has a considerable legal interest in their overall management.
All RM areas are defined in statute as those “where the need to protect, manage, and enhance forest, agricultural, recreational and open space resources is of paramount importance because of overriding natural resource and public considerations….
“Many resource management areas are characterized by substantial acreages of one or more of the following: shallow soils, severe slopes, elevations above 2500 ft., floodplains, proximity to wild or scenic rivers, wetlands, critical wildlife habitats or of rare and endangered plant and animal species.”
The APA Act goes on: “the basic purposes and objectives of Resource Management areas are to protect the delicate physical and biological resources, encourage proper and economic management of forest, agricultural and recreational resources and preserve the open spaces that are essential and basic to the unique character of the park.
“Another objective of these areas is to prevent strip development along major travel corridors in order to enhance the aesthetic and economic benefits derived from a park atmosphere along these corridors. Finally, resource management areas will allow for residential development on substantial acreages or in small clusters on carefully selected and well designed sites.”
As to the past permits issued to Whitney Industries:
In 1989, APA issued Whitney Industries a letter of nonjurisdiction (“NJ” letter) for the sale of eight acres on the south shore of Forked Lake on grounds that the acreage was a preexisting vacant lot and required no further permit.
However, in that NJ letter APA stated that “should a pattern of conveyances arise which manifest an active development plan, the Agency would seek to assert jurisdiction over all future development in order to assess its overall impact.”
Permits in 1991 and 1993 authorized new sand and gravel extractions at Whitney. A more relevant permit, considering the pending sale to a Texas developer, was one issued in 1992 authorizing a three-lot subdivision, but “reserving the right to require a master plan prior to approving future jurisdictional activities” – except for small hunting and fishing cabins and other minor activities listed.
In a follow-up 1992 letter to the applicant, the APA clarified activities which would require approval of a comprehensive master plan prior to issuing future permits.
The letter explained that a master plan would be required so that overall and cumulative impacts of future subdivision and development could be considered and addressed. Activities not triggering a master plan would be lots or parcels used exclusively for timber management or other open space purposes not involving construction of principal buildings or of hunting and fishing cabins over 500 square feet.
Also exempt from the master plan requirement were conservation conveyances to New York State for the Forest Preserve, or to not-for-profit conservation organizations for conservation objectives.
In short, the 1992 permit condition clearly requires the preparation of a comprehensive master plan should Whitney Industries or its successors apply for future subdivision involving new principal building lots.
In 1996, Whitney was granted an additional permit for subdividing off three lots, each with a preexisting single-family dwelling on or near Little Tupper Lake, each one deed restricted to prevent additional buildings. No new land development was proposed.
Other than the lots with preexisting buildings, the remaining 45,200-acre contiguous parcel existing in 1996 was retained and Whitney indicated no plans to further develop.
The 1996 permit also restated the 1992 condition that any further land use and development involving the construction of new principal buildings would require the advance preparation of a comprehensive master plan so that overall and cumulative impacts of future subdivision and development could be considered and addressed.
What is very interesting in the APA 1996 permit was the APA’s description of Whitney’s ownership, such as this description under the heading of Unique Resources:
“The project site is the fifth largest contiguous privately-owned landholding in the Park. With numerous lakes, ponds, streams and extensive wetland, it represents a significant open space and ecological resource of the Adirondack Park.
“Nowhere in the Eastern United States do land resources exist in private holdings of comparable size and extent with the exception of northern Maine. The open space and ecological values of properties of this size and containing these resources diminish rapidly as they are subdivided.”
The 1996 permit description went on to list special features of Whitney Industries including:
o High quality, deep, cold water lake fisheries
o Exceptional geological and aesthetic features such as kettlehole bogs, eskers, steep creeks, large and diverse wetland complexes
o Significant deer wintering areas, and protected species of plants and animals
o Single-ownership forest tracts capable of integrated, comprehensive management to enhance its forestry, wildlife, aesthetic and recreational values.
Of its forest resources, the permit went on:
“A traditional grid subdivision of the property would reduce its future timber potential because segmented ownership would inhibit integrated, comprehensive timber management for the entire site.
“The best way to utilize the forest resource and protect its wildlife and open space values and the water quality of waterbodies and streams is to maintain it in a relatively unsegmented ownership.”
In December 1997, Mary Lou Whitney sold 15,000 acres of Whitney Industries, including 2,800 acres of lakes and ponds, much of which is Little Tupper Lake, to New York State for the “forever wild” Adirondack Forest Preserve.
In 2000 the APA, in consultation with the DEC, classified most of these new state holdings as the William C. Whitney Wilderness area.
That sale left 36,000 acres south of Little Tupper Lake and Rock Lake in Whitney Industries ownership. All of it is zoned Resource Management and, presumably, subject to the quoted 1992 permit condition requiring a comprehensive master plan should subdivision involving new principal buildings be proposed, a condition reiterated in the 1996 permit.
Last fall, eight conservation organizations called on Governor Kathy Hochul to act swiftly to protect these 36,000 acres of forests, lakes and rivers owned by heirs to the vast Whitney and Vanderbilt family fortunes. You can read more about that failed attempt here.
Illustration: Map of Whitney Park (provided by Protect the Adirondacks).
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