Representatives of Outdoor Venture Group, an adventure park company based in Connecticut, returned to the Town of Montgomery planning board recently to provide updates to a distinctive project: the Forest of Fun Aerial Park, a rope course park proposed for Scotts Corners. This project was originally submitted to the board in November 2023 and has since generated polarizing feedback from residents and officials.

Kelly Naughton, an attorney from Naughton Torre Law, and Lara Pruschki, a civil engineer of Engineering & Surveying Properties, summarized the project’s site plans and presented a mock-up of the adventure park’s map. The project will comprise 11.96 acres within a 34.65-acre parcel and include two access points: a main entrance off of Old Route 208 and an emergency entrance off of Scotts Corners Drive. Attendees driving through the main entrance will be greeted by a 260-space parking lot and a 3,500-square-foot building containing ticket sales, restrooms, and offices. Behind the main building will be a smaller building for maintenance and equipment, along with two event tents for birthdays and special occasions. For water, the site will utilize a private well, a private septic system, two retention ponds, and an infiltration basin.

The rest of the site will comprise rope courses intertwined in the existing trees, providing a jungle gym for visitors to climb up, swing on, and zipline through. The park would likely be open between early March and late November, from 9 a.m. until the evening.

“It is probably one of the more unique projects that’s going to come before you because as I’ve previously said, it wants to save and use the trees on site,” Naughton said.

Bahman Azarm, founder of Outdoor Venture Group, recounted the company’s history and emphasized the potential of rope course parks. After being inspired by an adventure park in Switzerland, Azarm sought to bring that same experience to the United States. His company established its first adventure park in 2008 at the Catamount Ski Area in Massachusetts; since then, the company has built 40 parks across the country. Azarm asserted that millions of customers enjoy Outdoor Venture’s parks and consider the attractions exhilarating places for outdoor, physical activity.

“In general, we’ve had over 2 million customers go through our parks up to now since we built out first,” Azarm said. “We generally only get great reviews, with people walking out extremely confident in what they have done. And even though they feel very tired, they can’t wait to come back.”

During the hearing’s public comment, several residents who live near the site raised concerns about noise disturbances, light pollution, and safety issues that the adventure park could create. They requested the applicant to carefully consider local neighbors when pushing this project and implement design choices that would mitigate the aforementioned disturbances, such as additional shrubbery and dimmed lights.

“Fox Hill does not support the adventure park development being adjacent to our property; our concerns are the safety of our children and residents. Our elementary school classes and the 265 residents of the Fox Hill community use the adjacent property for nature studies, hiking, maple sapping, and outdoor activities,” said Colin Winter, a resident of the Fox Hill Bruderhof, who provided a letter on behalf of his community. “Walking in the quiet nature trails and forest of our property will not be the same with the noise, lights, and patrons looking down from the elevated zip lines.”

“My main concern with the noise is people are going to have fun using these rope courses. They’re going to be yelling, hooting, and hollering, that sort of thing,” said Resident Gregory Wright. “And the park is close to my property, I’m going to have to listen to this for 12 hours a day. People having fun isn’t the problem, but when I’m trying to relax in my house, I’m going to listen to people yelling and hollering outside.”

“We would definitely like to see mitigation to the lights, like having them pointed down and reducing the shine on other properties,” said Fox Hill Resident Tim Maendel.

Orange County officials, on the other hand, were ecstatic about the project and felt it would be a great asset for Montgomery and the county, boosting tourism and revenue.

“We believe this proposal is incredibly effective for our county with respect to job creation and lowering taxes. This project provides incredible growth for the county through tourism, hospitality, and all the ancillary benefits to our local businesses,” said Steven Gross, director of OC Economic Development. “This is a great opportunity for families to have recreation right here while keeping the property relatively green for the future. It’s not a major industrial use on the property, and it provides safe and healthy recreational opportunities for our young people.”

“The focus on our comp plan was tourism, creating a community where young families could move, where we could retain our young talent, where the kids have activities. I think this project is exactly what we’re looking for as a community,” said Conor Eckert, vice president of OC Partnership. “There are things kids out there who are looking for things to do in the summer, and this combined with some of the other activities in the outskirts of the town will make Montgomery a unique community with tourism assets for residents and visitors.”

“These are the types of projects that we aim for. I see this particular one as a real benefit for our tourism community because it extends people’s time here,” said Amanda Dana, director of OC Tourism. “People come here for many reasons, but when you add these types of recreational uses and attractions, they tend to stay here more. When they stay here, they get to love our town and community like we do and contribute to our economy greatly.”

As of that meeting, the planning board received comments from Orange County and the town’s landscaping architect. PB Chairman Fred Reiche asserted that the board would send Fox Hill’s letter to the applicant and continue the project’s public hearing on Monday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m.