District OKs rules for permit holders

By KAYLEIGH KARUTIS, The Leader-Herald

The Hudson River-Black River Regulating District's decision to pass along its new rules governing permit holders on the Great Sacandaga Lake to the state for final approval moves the three-year process to rewrite the rules one step away from completion.

The Regulating District approved its draft of the rules at a board meeting in Saratoga Springs last week. The rules are now up for review by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has no timetable for approving or rejecting them, said Regulating District Executive Director Glenn LaFave.

"They could be approved or the DEC could come back and ask for revisions," he said. "We are optimistic they will finish by the end of the year so the rules can be enacted in 2009."

LaFave said new fees for permit holders will not go into effect until 2010.

The district has been criticized for creating rules that are complicated and confusing, and at times contradictory. One vocal critic, Peter VanAvery of the Batchellerville Bridge Action Committee, recommended at a board meeting last month the board scrap the rules entirely and start anew.

"Since you are so consistent in making your proceedings difficult for the audience to understand, it is clear that you are doing it on purpose because you know the rules will be harmful to us," VanAvery said in a newsletter directed to the district's board.

LaFave said the board has tried to make the rules consistent and more understandable.

One critique leveled at the board has been the role of the executive director as an appeals officer - the individual who

handles permit holders' complaints against the district. Many permit holders in attendance at the August meeting said it was a conflict of interest.

LaFave said that has been changed to make the board's Permit System Committee, of which two of the three members are permit holders, the first entity to oversee permit holders' appeals.

The board also altered a rule pertaining to lake-front permit holders who have footpaths for backlot permit holders running adjacent to their properties. Under the district's draft of the rules, those with footpaths next to their properties would not be responsible for maintaining the paths and would not be held liable if someone is injured on the paths.

The board also explicitly stated the number of backlot permits will be capped once the rules go into effect, LaFave said. He said there now are about 1,900 backlot permits.

The new rules also would change how fees are charged for permit holders. LaFave said the district could not speculate on what the new fees would be.

LaFave said he is optimistic the DEC will approve the rules by December but cautioned there is no guarantee. Once the rules are approved, the Regulating District will conduct a meeting to formally adopt and implement the rules.