Town's case against zip line business coming to a close

PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Schultz

Mountain Ridge Adventure, the Capital Region's new treetop challenge course and zip line park in Glenville has opened for business in mid-June. Gazette reporter Brett Samuels is seen negotiating an area to the next zip line on the course. The Town of G...

The Town of Glenville’s case against Mountain Ridge Adventure will come to a close in the next few weeks now that testimony has concluded.

Attorneys from the town and the treetop adventure course will submit closing statements by mail in the next couple days to Town Justice Jennifer McPhail, and the judge will render a decision after that. Testimony in the case concluded last Thursday. The verdict will determine whether the business has been operating illegally since early June.

Mountain Ridge Adventure, which features several treetop adventure courses and a separate zip line park, opened around June 6. However, Glenville officials claim the owners, Michael and Olivia Cellini, did not obtain the proper amusement park permit from the town board before doing so, and have been running the business illegally. If found guilty, the Cellinis face a fine of up to $250 for each day they’ve been open, which would total more than $10,000 as of late August.

Once lawyers from each side submit closing statements, McPhail will review those, as well as all other evidence submitted during the trial, and render a decision. McPhail’s clerk said Tuesday that it could still be a couple weeks before a verdict is reached.

Testimony in the case was spread over the course of three days and focused largely on whether the zip lines and obstacle courses suspended in mid-air constitute mechanical equipment as defined by the town codes. The Cellinis have argued there was no indication during their approval process with the town planning and zoning boards that they’d need an amusement park permit.

According to the Glenville town codes, an amusement park “includes the operation of mechanical equipment designed for entertainment, exclusive of equipment ordinarily classed as playground equipment.”

The business includes several challenge courses suspended 10 feet or higher off the ground, as well as a separate zip line park where visitors can hook onto the line and glide from platform to platform.

The first two days of testimony took about two hours each, and both sides met last Thursday for nearly six hours of testimony to wrap things up. Witnesses who took the stand during the trial included the town’s code enforcement officer, the town’s former building inspector, the town clerk and the Cellinis.

Some neighbors who spoke in opposition to the business at various Town Board meetings have shown up at town hall the past few weeks to observe the trial.

Mountain Ridge Adventure, located on the Cellinis’ property on Weatherwax Road, has been a contentious subject since it was first proposed a few years ago. Neighbors have largely been opposed to the ropes course, saying they prefer to keep the land rural, and citing concerns ahead of its opening about traffic and noise.

Reach Gazette reporter Brett Samuels at 395-3113, [email protected] or @Brett_Samuels27 on Twitter.