Essex County Board of Supervisors
I am writing to ask Essex County to take a direct interest in Adirondack Park Agency Project P2021-0276, the application submitted by Unconventional Concepts, Inc. for a limited 155-millimeter howitzer barrel-testing operation in the Town of Lewis, Essex County. My primary request is straightforward: I am asking Essex County to support Unconventional Concepts, Inc. and the company's effort to move this project forward, while also joining the other Adirondack Park counties in demanding a serious review of the regulatory process that has allowed the application to remain unresolved for years. This project has inevitably attracted attention because it involves a 155-millimeter howitzer. However, the actual proposal is considerably narrower than the rhetoric surrounding the word itself sometimes suggests. According to the Adirondack Park Agency's current description, the project concerns testing the internal ballistics of 155-millimeter cannon barrels. Steel projectiles would be fired into a designated target area, explosive warheads are not proposed, a projectile-catching system has been proposed, and the proposed firing schedule is limited to thirty firings per year on weekdays. The project is now the subject of an adjudicatory hearing presently scheduled for October 28, 2026. I believe UCI deserves the support of the Adirondack counties because this is precisely the type of unconventional private-sector research and technical activity that rural New York should be capable of accommodating when legitimate safety and environmental requirements can be satisfied. Supporting UCI does not mean abandoning environmental review. It means recognizing that environmental protection must operate through objective standards, technical evidence, reasonable conditions, and decisions. If legitimate engineering or environmental concerns can be mitigated through enforceable conditions, then the proper governmental response should be to establish those conditions and allow the project to proceed. The larger problem is that UCI's application has been in the APA process since 2021. Regardless of one's position on this particular facility, a regulatory system that can consume years before reaching a final determination creates a serious problem for property owners, entrepreneurs, employers, municipalities, and investors throughout the Adirondack Park. Essex County has a direct interest in that question because the precedent established by this matter will not remain confined to one parcel in Essex County. The next applicant trapped in a prolonged and uncertain process could be proposing manufacturing, forestry, housing, telecommunications, tourism infrastructure, energy development, or another project important to Essex County. For that reason, I am enclosing a proposed county resolution requesting a formal review through the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board. Executive Law § 803-a specifically authorizes that body to monitor administration and enforcement of the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan and make recommendations to the Governor, Legislature, and the legislative bodies of the Adirondack Park counties. I respectfully ask you to place this issue before the Essex County Board of Supervisors, support UCI's effort to obtain approval for Project P2021-0276 under reasonable and technically defensible conditions, and encourage Essex County's participation in a coordinated twelve-county review of the APA's handling of this application. The counties should ask a simple question: if an applicant is willing and able to satisfy legitimate regulatory requirements, what precisely must that applicant do to receive a permit and move forward? UCI should receive an answer to that question. So should every future applicant in the Adirondack Park. Respectfully, [Your name] NY
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