Scenic Byways Postscript
By Susan Allen
On October 18, 2003 I presented a paper on Scenic Byways at the Property Rights of America Conference in Albany, titled “Scenic Byways — Innocent Sounding Land Management.” In it I related the history of this federal/state program funded by the gasoline tax, tracing its beginning from the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign of the 1960’s up to the designation of numerous highways all across the country, which continues to this very day.
A focus of my talk was on the “Olympic Byway” which
passes through several towns in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate
New York. The Byways legislation ostensibly allows towns to “opt
out” of Byways designations. Four “Olympic Byways”
towns had done just that by resolution, due to the very hard work
of some local residents who knew full well how these designation
programs can damage local businesses, residences, and also the
very heritage they purport to preserve.
The Byways require something called a “Corridor Management
Plan,” the meaning of which is hazy but the implications
are ominous. As I had noted there is a “Scenic Byway Advisory
Committee” set up to develop design standards. The draft
“Corridor Management Plan” prepared for the Olympic
Byway had actually, if grudgingly, spelled out the four towns’
opposition to designation. But in my speech, I had expressed my
grave doubts as to whether the state would recognize and respect
the local governments’ decisions.
I also had dissected the so-called “local” organizations that nominate these roads as Byways, and which orchestrate the “hearings” or “workshops” or “committees” or any other vehicle they can think up to push the program onto the unsuspecting populace. These turn out to be complete put-up jobs by national or influential local organizations such as land trusts, or groups focused on historic preservation, recreation, wildlife or just plain scenic beauty. And too often the Byways programs are supported by local governments, business or tourism organizations who cave in to the promoters and ignore the risks, as long as there are dollars in it for them. I had also spelled out the additional danger of foisting off the inevitable “planning” duties onto paid consultants, as the whole process gets hidden from the already-weak sunshine laws while it sops up more and more taxpayer money.
In October 2003, I had reported that the map and guidebook for the entire Olympic Byway was going to come out that month. Sure enough, the four towns that had “opted out” of the Byway are mapped right back into the route, and are featured in their slick brochure and “Visitors Guide.” The hard work of local residents in persuading their local government officials to say “No way!” was therefore all for nothing. The pitch for the program, that it was entirely voluntary, was a lie. The organizations in charge of administering the program, who received grant funding for public outreach and planning, blatantly ignored legal resolutions from the towns.
As to the “Visitors Guide” brochure itself, it fails in as many ways. The Scenic Byway program was touted as highlighting communities and their culture, which would include the local businesses and information of interest to the traveling public. Instead, the booklet lists few of those features except those relating to hiking and nature, with a few scattered historic sites thrown in.
The single exception is that downhill skiing on Whiteface Mountain
is mentioned, a nod to the title of the Byway but, incredibly,
with no mention in the text of the actual Olympic ski races held
at the mountain in 1932 and 1980, and the myriad World Cup and
other skiing competitions that take place there every year. In
fact, there is no mention of any Olympic sites in Lake Placid
itself, the showcase village on the Byway, which houses the indoor
Olympic arena which saw so many ice skating champions as well
as the “Miracle on Ice” hockey team from 1980, the speedskating
oval where Eric Heiden won five gold medals, the twin ski jumps
and the Olympic Museum which memorializes all those athletic accomplishments.
The brochure trumpets the new multi-million-dollar Natural History
Museum in Tupper Lake, but does not mention the local efforts
to permanently re-light the Olympic torch at the Lake Placid Horse
Show Grounds. No mention of the world-famous annual Horse Show,
by the way. And no mention of the Woodsmens Field Days in Tupper
Lake with the lumberjack competitions and skills, a local cultural
event ongoing since the 1940’s. Only natural history, not
logging history, is allowed on a Scenic Byway.
The brochure is quick to point out the Five Ponds Wilderness area, where access is limited to foot travel. However, Five Ponds does not “border” the Byway at all, and there’s no indication how to get into it or a list of all the things you won’t be able to do once you get there. Those who pick up the Olympic pamphlet, even those heading into the Five Ponds, won’t learn where to replace a rain-soaked sleeping bag, rent a canoe or pick up some freeze-dried food, much less get breakfast or a pizza or a glass of wine at the end of a long day. More to the point, there’s no mention of the various Wild Forest areas that actually do line the Byway and/or have road access into them — Aldrich Pond, Saranac Lakes, Horseshoe Lake, and Cranberry Lake. There one can find places to set up camp right from the car, fish from a motorboat, or enjoy the outdoors on a horse or a snowmobile.
The Olympic Byway is included in the omnibus Byways brochure for all of New York State. This guidebook at least features some places of interest like a donut shop, a furniture store, a berry farm and a farmers market. It tells where to take a shoreline cruise and find a winery, and it lists most of the historic destinations along the routes. On its cover are icons of a gas pump, a golf course tee, an airplane and the comedy/tragedy masks, along with the picnic table, pine tree and other hiker-related symbols. But nowhere in the state’s brochure does it actually name the golf courses, the local theater groups, the airports or airstrips and the 24-hour gas stations.
As I had mentioned in my 2003 speech, the “Lakes to Locks Passage” is a designated “All American Road,” which is the highest accolade granted under the Byways program. Recently, more than $1 million in funds were given to five towns along this Byway, which runs alongside Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal. These towns have plans for visitor centers, which (though you can argue whether they are worth their cost) are an accepted method of tourism marketing. However, the grants specify that these centers must not be “tourist information” centers, but instead have to “interpret” the area. So the Byways don’t even have to cater to the travelers they are purporting to attract, who undoubtedly will be looking for information on accommodations, restaurants, retail stores, or services such as where to board a dog or inflate a flat tire.
A couple more ominous notes have surfaced since my October 2003 speech. Meeting up with the Olympic Byway is the Rt. 73 Scenic Byway, now renamed the “High Peaks Scenic Byway.” It had been originally nominated by the staff of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), the regulatory and zoning body for the twelve-county area of the Adirondacks. I had mentioned that this Byway is a little different in that it runs mostly through state land, which has its own rules documented in Unit Management Plans (UMPs), which are a whole other set of sham public processes and backroom lobbying deals made by preservationist organizations. UMPs have had the force and effect of closing roads and campsites, prohibiting uses other than foot traffic and heartlessly destroying local culture.
Just last month, in March 2007, APA staff announced that they have begun to work on the “Corridor Management Plan” for this “High Peaks Byway.” Chief UMP planner at the APA, Rick Weber, is going to head up the corridor planning efforts and is in position to steer the APA commissioners into accepting more and more wilderness values for public land. This future “Corridor Management Plan,” though written as a guideline for mostly public land, is sure to serve as the template for other Byways, thereby transposing those wilderness values onto roadways that run predominately through private lands.
The state has also developed a “Mountain Communities” planning program for the Adirondacks and Catskills run by the Department of State. Municipalities are rewarded with grants for “visioning” in their “comprehensive plans,” which could include “the multi-community Scenic Byways project the APA is involved in.”
The acquisition of still more land in the Adirondacks, and the appointment of Alexander Grannis as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation show that the state is ramping up its efforts to preserve the Adirondacks as a place hostile to the people who make it their home.
Susan Allen is the publisher of the independent Adirondack Park Agency Reporter, Keene Valley, N.Y.
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