Adirondack Park Agency Headquarters

The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is the entity which governs the land of the park. Its headquarters is located in a state office park in the town of Ray Brook, near Saranac Lake. The APA was established in 1971 by the state to develop a master plan for the park. Managing and enforcing activities allowed on the 3.5 million acres of private land in the park, as specified by law in the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan, as it is known, has been the difficult task of the Adirondack Park Agency ever since. Unlike other State Parks in New York, which are managed by the office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Adirondack Park is managed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (the DEC, which manages most of the 2.5 million acres of state land in the park), along with the APA, which manages the rest. The state office park in Ray Brook serves as a centralized operations and enforcement center for the park, with a DEC building, the APA building, a state police complex, and a state correctional complex across the highway.