LAST SUMMER, when Gerry Delaney spoke at a public forum about the future of the Adirondack Park, the conservative councilman from the town of Saranac laid out a vision that’s become a startling new normal. He acknowledged deep policy divides while insisting that all the park’s factions embrace neighborliness and civility.
“There are different interests between the environmental groups and local governments,” Delaney said. “But we all have to live together. When there’s a flood, a fire, a bad accident, we all come together.”
The crowd in Elizabethtown applauded and the discussion quickly turned to a debate over wastewater treatment and regional planning. There was no name-calling. There were no threats. No one shouted or voiced conspiracy theories or stormed out of the room.
To understand how remarkable that moment was, it’s important to look back to the first troubled chapter of the Adirondack Park’s modern history.
Beginning in the 1970s, strict land-use regulations approved by New York’s legislature and implemented by the newlyformed Adirondack Park Agency (APA) raised local people’s hackles. The rules limited many land-owners’ property rights and gave unprecedented power to
