RAY BROOK, N.Y. (WCAX) – The Adirondack Park Agency Board will require an adjudicatory hearing for a proposed weapons firing range on private lands in the town of Lewis.
The applicant, Michael Hopmeier, is the president of Unconventional Concepts, a private military contractor who owns an abandoned nuclear missile silo and recently conducted a military exercise that drew criticism from his neighbors.
He is asking the APA to approve the firing and testing of a howitzer cannon at least 30 times a year on Hale Hill Road as part of ballistics testing.
In a draft report this month, APA staff say the three main issues they want addressed are: Whether the application fits within the Adirondack Park Land Use Plan; if it meets the area’s rural use designation; and whether there would be adverse effects to wildlife, people living there, and the natural area.
During a meeting on Thursday, the APA Board decided to hold a full hearing.
Critics of the proposal, including the group Protect the Adirondacks. praised the APA’s decision. “A weapons firing range has no place in the Adirondack Park,” the group’s Claudia Braymer said in a statement. “The Agency Board needs to hold an adjudicatory hearing so that this proposed project can be denied on the basis of its significant adverse impacts on the natural and human communities of the Adirondacks.”
Hopmeier has not responded to requests for comment.
