Herkimer County Zoning: Old Forge's Local APA Program

Herkimer County's hub notes that the Town of Webb -- home to Old Forge, Big Moose, and Thendara -- sits inside the Adirondack Park's Blue Line while the county's Mohawk Valley towns do not. This page covers a specific, confirmed detail: Webb is one of a limited number of Adirondack towns with its own APA-approved Local Land Use Program, meaning most zoning and subdivision decisions there run through the town's own code enforcement and planning apparatus rather than the state agency directly.

This page covers what's specific to Herkimer County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

Webb runs its own zoning code -- and its own APA-approved program

The Town of Webb maintains a substantial local land-use framework of its own: a zoning ordinance (Chapter 480 of the town code) and a separate subdivision-of-land ordinance (Chapter 410), both administered through the town's own Office of Code Enforcement. Webb is also confirmed as one of the roughly 18 municipalities statewide with an APA-approved Local Land Use Program -- meaning that, once the Agency approved the town's own zoning and subdivision ordinances, jurisdiction over most project types ("Class B" projects, in the Adirondack Park Agency Act's terminology) shifted to the town itself, while the APA retained direct jurisdiction only over the largest regional projects ("Class A" and "Class A1"), anything touching a wetland, and anything within a designated river corridor.

For a buyer looking at a typical residential lot near Old Forge, Eagle Bay, Big Moose, or Thendara, this is a meaningful practical difference from an Adirondack town without an approved program: the first stop for a building permit, a variance, or a straightforward subdivision review is the Town of Webb's own Code Enforcement office, working from the town's own zoning map and district rules, rather than a direct application to the Adirondack Park Agency's Ray Brook office. The town's own "Can I Build on This Lot?" guidance document, published by its Code Enforcement office, is a useful first-pass resource for exactly this question.

What still goes to the APA directly, even in Webb

A local program shifts jurisdiction over most projects, not all of them. A larger commercial development, a major subdivision, or a project touching a wetland or a river corridor -- genuinely relevant categories in a town built around lakes and the Moose River -- can still trigger direct APA review even with Webb's local program in place. Old Forge's commercial core along NYS Route 28, and shoreline development around Old Forge Pond, Big Moose Lake, or the Fulton Chain of Lakes, are the kinds of projects most likely to cross that line back into state jurisdiction. Confirm with the town's Code Enforcement office, early, whether a specific project stays local or needs to go to the APA.

This local-program advantage is specific to Webb -- it does not extend to the rest of Herkimer County's Adirondack-adjacent towns, whose Local Land Use Program status this research did not confirm (the hub itself flags that Herkimer's full northern town roster inside the Blue Line isn't independently confirmed). Absent confirmation otherwise, treat any other northern Herkimer County town as more likely to route project applications to the APA directly, the way a Blue Line town without an approved program generally does.

Zoning at Old Forge: The Town of Webb's Own APA-Approved Program

Webb runs its own zoning code -- and its own APA-approved program

What still goes to the APA directly, even in Webb

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