Folder 0874

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

- upstate communities four years ago to keep the reservoirs clean. Under that agreement, the city gives towns in the watershed money to promote economic development, and the towns in return have dropped their long resistance to water-protection efforts.

The state environmental officials who will soon review the resort proposal face a tricky decision. If they order it scaled back, Mr. Gitter and his allies, who supported the watershed accord, are likely to say they have been betrayed because they believed the pact would encourage projects like theirs. But if the state approves the project, environmentalists warn, water quality will suffer and the federal government could follow through on its threat to force the city to spend billions of dollars on a filtration plant.

"This project is shaping up as an unavoidable test of the state's commitment to watershed protection," said Eric Goldstein, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, who has included the resort project on a list of issues to raise with New York City mayoral candidates. Already, two of those candidates, City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone and Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, have spoken out against the plan.

Reviving tourism has long been a preoccupation in the Catskills, where flashy resorts drew tens of thousands of visitors each year until the 1960's. A number of major developments have been proposed in recent years, including plans for a $500 million hotel and conference center at the former Concord Hotel, south of the Catskill Park in Kiamesha Lake.

But in the park, "nothing proposed or discussed is anywhere near the scale and scope of this proposed development," said James M. Tierney, an assistant state attorney general who serves as the inspector general for the city's watershed.

Before publicizing their proposal in late 1999, Mr. Gitter and his partners acquired 2,000 acres for the complex, to be called the Belleayre Resort, after the mountain where it would surround the small, state-run Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. They will soon submit a detailed plan to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which will then seek public comment and make a decision.

Although about three-quarters of the land would remain undeveloped except for nature trails, opponents say the plan could endanger two of New York City's most important reservoirs with pesticides and soil erosion from the golf course, along with runoff from new roads and traffic and development fostered by the resort.

Any project this large is bound to stir opposition. But Mr. Gitter's flamboyant style has provoked a special rancor among many of the year- round residents and summer people who chose Shandaken (pronounced shan-DAKE-in) for its remoteness and tranquillity.

"This is the most controversial thing a sleepy town like this has ever seen," said the town supervisor, Wayne Guttman. "And Mr. Gitter's personality does get involved."

The developer, who began his business career by recording the folk- music legend Odetta's first major album in the late 1950's and went on to earn an M.B.A. at Harvard, clearly has big dreams. A decade ago, he tried to build a $500 million cultural theme park and trade center near Baltimore with the help of the former Democratic presidential candidate Paul Tsongas and a $23 million investment from the Chinese government, but the project foundered, in part because of local opposition.

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