By Will Doolittle will@poststar.com
ESSEX - On March 13, 2008, Paul Van Cott made an impassioned presentation to the enforcement committee of the Adirondack Park Agency about the Lewis Family Farm in Essex and the houses the farm's owners were building for workers.
Van Cott, the APA's lead enforcement lawyer, had put together a slide show with photos of the farm that he presented as he spoke.
"The Lewis Farm is an incredibly beautiful parcel of land, set against the backdrop of the Adirondack Mountains," he began. "The property is over 1,000 acres in size and Lewis Farm is clearly using the land for agricultural purposes."
He continued showing slides.
"As this picture of the Lewis Farm amply demonstrates, the agricultural use of this land is precisely the sort of open space use desired by the Adirondack Park Agency Act.
"But," he continued, "that is not why we are here today."
Van Cott went on to argue that Sandy and Barbara Lewis, the owners of the farm, were required to seek a permit from the APA, because they were building single-family dwellings on land in a zoning classification called "resource management."
Although many farm activities are exempt under the APA Act, single-family homes are not considered "agricultural use structures," he stated.
One member of the committee - Art Lussi, a businessman from Lake Placid - questioned Van Cott's interpretation, but he was unequivocal.
"The APA does have authority over this building project," he said.
Later, Van Cott said his wife had joked about the lack of agricultural character of the farm's houses, asking him, "Where is the horse in these single-family dwellings?"
Van Cott was confident in his interpretation that the housing was not an exempt farm use, and he was persuasive - even jocular - in his interaction with the APA commissioners.
He was also wrong, and the consequences of his misinterpretation of the law, in the legal and public relations fight that followed the enforcement committee hearing, have been significant.
From the APA's perspective, the fight with Sandy Lewis was disastrous, antagonizing the state's farming community and leading to two defeats in court on the housing question, followed by another defeat when Lewis sued the APA for his legal fees.
Van Cott was publicly humiliated after he responded to a Sandy Lewis e-mail by calling Lewis a "sociopath" and asking that he "Please shut up" and "Go farm." (See box for the complete text of Van Cott's two Nov. 10, 2009, e-mails.)
Van Cott sent his responses to Lewis and to an assortment of journalists copied on Lewis' original e-mail. Shortly, stories about the exchange appeared in newspapers throughout the region.
The APA's leaders, through the agency's spokesman, Keith McKeever, said they disapproved of Van Cott's behavior. He was transferred into a different job, although his responsibilities have broadened, according to McKeever.
Other APA officials, including Van Cott and Executive Director Terry Martino - called at work and at home numerous times over the past several months - have refused to comment on Van Cott's e-mail exchange with Lewis or his reassignment or any other subject covered in this series of stories. All inquiries have been funneled to McKeever.
Since late July, even McKeever has refused to come to the phone, taking questions only by e-mail. On many subjects, such as when asked about the significance of the Lewis Family Farm case, he refuses to comment.
Other people, especially those who have been seeking for years to reform the APA, have been more talkative.
Model for the future
"Sandy's case has given people encouragement that the APA can be challenged and cases can be won on the merits," said Teresa Sayward, the state assemblywoman whose district includes all of Warren and Hamilton counties and most of Essex County, including the town of Essex.
The Lewis case, she said, "started the ball rolling," encouraging property owners and politicians who have been trying for years to bring attention to what they see as the unlawful extension of its authority by the APA.
"It really does have long-reaching effects, especially for the farmers," said Sayward, who used to own and run a dairy farm herself. "If the Park Agency had prevailed, what would stop any community with zoning and planning from putting restrictive covenants in against farms and having them upheld? It had an effect statewide."
Lewis, with his money and his intelligence, was the best possible ally for farmers, she said.
"This is a landmark case for farmers, certainly within the park, and also within the state," said Pete Gregg, spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau. "This set a precedent that we're not going to let this rogue state agency push us around."
Gregg characterized the APA's behavior toward Lewis as "egregious," saying it was "as if they were trying to attack him personally, taking vindictive actions."
"We have had disputes over agricultural use law, across the state," he said. "One of this scale and one this politicized we have not seen in many years. We were eager to stand up for our member. The outcome is a big victory for farmers everywhere."
The court's decision strengthened farmers' position in the park and statewide, said Dean Norton, president of the Farm Bureau. The Lewis case pitted one state agency, Agriculture & Markets, against another, the APA, he pointed out.
With Lewis winning, Norton said, "you'd be hard-pressed for other state agencies to come in and try to supersede Ag & Markets law."
David Lansing, the code and zoning officer for the town of Essex, granted the Lewises a town permit to put in their farmworker houses before the APA claimed jurisdiction over them.
Lansing said the Lewises' operation, using cutting-edge organic methods and college interns as summer laborers, is a model of farming for the future.
"It's a whole new era," he said. "You don't have migrant workers any more. He's bringing in people to educate them, as organic farmers. I don't think this has been very well aired yet. They bring in people from all over the world. ... To me, this is the next wave in farming, and the kind of farming he does is on a very large scale."
Lansing said he believes zoning laws are useful and helpful, but the APA allowed the dispute with Lewis to become a grudge match.
"They gave him a bad rap," he said.
"I think Sandy did the right thing," he added. "He won, so, it speaks for itself pretty much."