The Times Union reports that two months after environmentalists and developers reached a compromise on plans for the high-end Belleayre Resort in the Catskill Mountains, the Sierra Club has declined to join the agreement. Originally proposed in 1999, plans to begin building have been continually frustrated by environmental concerns and state permit hearings. However, in early September Governor Eliot Spitzer brokered an agreement to permit the resort's construction. The compromise between the developer, CrossRoads Ventures LLC, and a smattering of environmental groups involved scaling down the size of the resort and relocating it farther west to avoid disrupting Catskill Park; moreover, the state would buy and maintain $14 million worth of undeveloped land.

The Sierra Club, self-described as America's oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization with 1.3 million members nationwide and 42,000 in New York alone, is one of a half-dozen environmental organizations continuing to oppose construction on the grounds that the resort would seriously impact drinking water, increase traffic, and force sprawl into the mountains. In response to these concerns, Dean Gitter, the public face of Cross Roads Ventures LLC stated, "we're never going to please everyone."