2nd meeting on West Mountain project: More public pro & con

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

The five-phase proposal to create an alpine village experience called The Woods at West Mountain over a period of about a decade came before the Queensbury Planning Board for a second time Thursday.

While no action was taken, the public weighed in, some commending the project, others expressing concerns about it.

“We need to support our town’s only ski resort so it can continue to thrive, be competitive, and improve the quality of life of our part of town,” said a letter read aloud from Ben Botelho. “This project will benefit the town and its residents.”

Mike Brandi spoke to say, “As someone who works in the ski industry and visits dozens of ski resorts across the country every year, I can confidently say that the experience at West Mountain is first class — but we can’t take it for granted.

“Across New York State alone, we have more than 350 lost ski areas,” he warned. “The vast majority are never revived. That’s the stark reality of this industry. Stagnation leads to decline, and decline leads to closure.

“West Mountain must continue to evolve and invest in its future to remain a viable and highly competitive seasonal business…If we want West Mountain to remain an asset for our community, we must support its ability to grow.”

Public apprehension raised at this meeting and the one in January includes concerns about environmental and visual impact, stormwater runoff, increased traffic and noise level from a proposed amphitheater.

Erin Ely wrote she’s alarmed “by the dense cluster of buildings at the bottom of the mountain that would be housing such a large population of people. This dense clustering is not appropriate for the rural area that surrounds it.”

Two letter writers raised concern about a stream being diverted by Phase 1 of the development.

In total it calls for 252 apartment units, 64 condominium units, 56 duplex units, 65 single-family custom homes and an 80-room hotel at the base of the ski area on a 60-acre tract of undeveloped land that used to be a dairy farm.

The project also envisions a retail plaza with a new main ski lodge and outdoor seasonal dining and seating adjacent to a man-made water feature.

West Mountain owner Spencer Montgomery asserted at the meeting that profit from the development would pay for improvements to the ski area.

“I think the development will be extremely popular,” he said. “We’ve done economic studies, and we expect it to be high demand if not pre-sold before built.

“Families coming up from Brooklyn, Long Island, people that are doing resort stays are looking for a ski and stay experience for their families,” he said.

“That’s the market I’m trying to capture. I’m not trying to capture the extreme skier. I’m trying to make the locals happy, and I’m trying to capture the families that are coming up.”

“It’s a full village,” Mr. Montgomery said of the proposal. “It’s going to have an organic grocery store. People that want to downsize can live over there and have a really cool lifestyle and not have to leave the property if they don’t want to. That will free up single family homes in Glens Falls and help bring back the population base to the schools.”

He said West faces fierce competition. “If you want to ask me if I enjoy competing against [state-owned] Gore, Whiteface and Belleayre, I absolutely do not,” he said, noting “there’s intense ticket pricing pressure now that they never used to touch, and they don’t seem scared to do that anymore.

“Is it difficult to compete as a day trip ski area? It is,” he said. “Can we do it? We can, but this development differentiates me from Gore. I don’t care that they’re getting a $30 million new lodge and all this bed tax to build out sewers and everything else.”

“Do I enjoy watching that happen? No, it’s very painful,” said Mr. Montgomery. “But I won’t be competing with them, because what I know about the ski market is there is a family sector to the market that is not looking to ski Stowe, not looking to ski 3,500 vertical at Whiteface.”

A third planning board meeting on the project will be scheduled for sometime in March, at which the board will potentially make a referral to the town board.

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