New York state will vote Nov. 4 on Proposal One, a proposal for a constitutional amendment to permit ski trails at the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex on up to 323 acres of Adirondack Forest Preserve and to accommodate global competitions, training and events in Lake Placid. In exchange, the state will acquire 2,500 acres of land to include in the forest preserve.
The Adirondack Forest Preserve is located in the Adirondack Park, which covers around six million acres of land in northeastern New York. The forest preserve covers about 2.7 million acres of land in Adirondack Park and is state-owned.
The Mount Van Hoevenberg Sports Complex — located in Lake Placid — was created for the Winter Olympics in 1932 and expanded for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. The facility covers 1,039 acres of forest preserve land, which, according to Section 1 of Article 14 of the New York Constitution, is unconstitutional because forest preserve lands are supposed to be forever kept as forest preserve lands and never built on.
Since the decision will amend the New York Constitution, residents of New York state will vote to approve or reject the proposal on the ballot Nov. 4. State Sen. Peter Harckham (D) and Sen. Daniel Stec (R) introduced the constitutional amendment to the state legislature March 7, 2023. The bill passed 58-0. The bill was introduced to the New York state Assembly June 8 and was passed in a vote of 114-1.
Mount Van Hoevenberg is not the only sports complex or ski area that has been built on the forest preserve; however, it is the only complex that was not constitutionally supported. According to the Adirondack Mountain Club, public use ski areas like Belleayre Mountain and Gore Mountain were approved to be built through constitutional amendments.
Claudia Braymer, executive director of Protect The Adirondacks, said the organization had called the Olympic Regional Development Authority out for years as it continued to expand on the forest preserve. Braymer said the ORDA constructed parking lots and a biathlon stadium for the 2023 Winter World University Games and pushed the ORDA to pursue an amendment.
“So [the proposal] gives them up to 323 acres of the forest preserve to use and the activities are limited to the Winter Olympic sports of Nordic skiing,” Braymer said. “So the parking lots and the trails and the stadium [they built] will be allowed to remain.”
Braymer said the proposal has taken some time to get on the ballot because of the long legislative process.
“It was really the 2023 games that it became very obvious that [the ORDA] was doing too much [on the forest preserve],” Braymer said. “There’s no court ruling that said they violated Article 14, but that’s what we felt they were doing.”
Justin Levine, senior communications specialist at the Adirondack Council, said the 323 acres of the sports complex in the forest preserve are already being used, and the amendment is a retroactive amendment. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, a retroactive amendment is defined as a law that “looks backward or contemplates the past, affecting acts or facts that existed before the act came into effect.”
“Mount Van Hoevenberg expanded onto the forest preserve where they shouldn’t have and this amendment will make that use allowable,” Levine said. “It does actually also expand the overall forest preserve because in exchange for the 323 acres in the forest preserve, we are getting at least 2,500 acres in another location.”
The Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex is a tourist attraction and a venue for recreation, competitions and athletic training. Tourists can use the complex for hiking, cross-country biking and skiing, and the complex offers ski and biking lessons. Levine said the complex was originally constructed on state and private lands for the 1932 Olympic Games.
“For almost a century, it has served as a world-class sporting and tourism destination that brings people from all over New York state, all over the country and all over the world to Lake Placid,” Levine said.
Ithaca College senior Silas Peters, a registered voter in Tompkins County, said he was unaware of the proposition. Peters said he has liberal-leaning views but is registered as an independent because he does not like affiliating with the Democratic Party. Peters said he is worried that the amendment could be used for the future taking of forest preserve land.
“I don’t know for sure that’s what it means, but I want to have more insight if that means they’re [taking forest preserve land] or not,” Peters said.
Peters said he will look into the proposition more before he votes, but he had no plans to vote on the proposition originally because he did not know about it.
Sara Bronin is a professor of law at the George Washington University and served as chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation from 2023-24. Bronin said the proposition is about land conservation, and the proposition could correct an error that was made in the original designation of the Adirondack Park.
“I don’t think that this will create a precedent that others seeking to carve out other parts of Adirondack Park will be able to hang their hat on … and in a way it does reflect and honor the history of the site, which was used for the Olympics,” Bronin said.
Braymer said the proposition would ensure the complex was in compliance with Article 14 of the constitution and would restrict future activities at the complex.
“[The proposition] will be helpful in the future to ensure that the ORDA stays within the boundaries, not just the physical boundaries, but also the boundaries of activities it’s allowed to conduct there under this constitutional amendment,” Braymer said.
Levine said the most important thing that voters should know is that in order to vote for the proposition, voters will have to physically flip their ballots over.
“That can be a big obstacle; people may not realize that there are actually things on the back of the ballot that they [can] vote for,” Levine said. “So I would strongly encourage everyone to flip over their ballot and vote yes.”
