By PETE KLEIN

For the Express

LONG LAKE — The final report from the Adirondack Futures Scenario project shows uncommon agreement among the 500 or so people who attended public workshops on the subject.

The report was the focus of the sixth annual Common Ground Alliance of the Adirondacks Forum July 18 at the Mount Sabattis Pavilion attended by 207 people.

The Adirondack Futures project was launched at last year’s forum with former management consultants Dave Mason and Jim Herman of Keene in charge. The idea was to determine what people want the Adirondack Park to be in 25 years.

Mason and Herman presented six scenarios at each workshop. The scenarios were developed after the two interviewed people from all around the park.

Mason and Herman said the results surprised them: participants agreed for the most part what kind of Adirondacks they hope to see.

“We almost didn’t believe it,” Mason said. What they found was “The Sustainable Life” is the most desirable scenario, by a wide margin, across all the workshops.

Under this model, the park is an example of a sustainable, low carbon footprint rural lifestyle. The region is more self-sufficient with strong local energy (e.g. biomass heat) and local food industries.

Widespread broadband Internet service enables more people to work from home and/or start small businesses.

Land use regulation encourages clustering in hamlets. Active management of the forest, even the Forest Preserve, helps it to adapt to climate change and invasive species.

A sense of community is important, as is living close to the land respectfully and living better without big growth. Young people especially find the lifestyle attractive. Government has helped with more flexible regulation and support for diverse, small-scale agriculture and renewable energy generation.

Herman and Mason next plan to produce a vision paper and an implementation strategy. Go to www.adkfutures.org/ for details on the Adirondack Futures project.

Adirondack Park Agency Chairwoman Leilani Ulrich spoke of how Common Ground came to be when she, Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian Houseal and former Inlet Supervisor John “JR” Risley came up with the idea of creating a civil conversation among groups that often find themselves at odds: local government, businesses and environmentalists.

Houseal said in order to make progress “we realized we needed to speak with one voice to Albany.”

This was Houseal’s last Common Ground Alliance conference as head of The Adirondack Council. He will be leaving that post at the end of October.

Ulrich said, “Brian (Houseal) had the courage to cross political lines and work for the best of both the ecology and the economy of the Adirondacks.”

During the forum there was some talk about creating a land bank in the forest preserve on which communities could draw.

A land bank would make it unnecessary for small towns to seek a constitutional amendment when they need land to build important utilities or infrastructure, such as happened when Raquette Lake had to drill wells to replace its surface water municipal water supply.

State Senator Betty Little (R-45th District) said the change would boost community development dramatically. “I was just delighted to see it one of the strategies here,” she said.

Little also gave Gov. Andrew Cuomo high marks because, “I believe the governor is bringing balance to the Adirondacks with agencies working together.”

The afternoon session focused on expanding broadband and developing a recreational plan for the Adirondacks.

Expansion of broadband availability is already happening as part of what is best known as the ForeverWired project promoted by Clarkson University in Potsdam.

Slic Network Solutions, part of Nicholville Telephone Company, was approved late last year for a $596,000 grant to connect Tupper Lake, recently wired but not yet functional, down Route 30 and into Long Lake.

Frontier Communication will lead a second Hamilton County project. Frontier provides about 90 percent of the county’s Internet. It will get $472,000 for infrastructure upgrades.

Nicholville CEO Mark Dzwonczyk said the 23 miles of fiber-optics are an expensive installation, but more investment is needed to build out connections in the town center. There are also plans to use wireless repeaters to increase Internet availability in Long Lake.

As a subsidiary of Nicholville Telephone, Slic Network Solutions specializes in delivering network and Internet to organizations in northern New York.

Dzwonczyk said he expects to have the fiber into Long Lake by next year, and mentioned how high-speed broadband in Keene has resulted in 45 percent of its residents deriving at least some income from the Internet.

“We can change the way the North Country works,” he said.