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New hotel plan prompts both support and concern

SARANAC LAKE – Village officials and local residents who’ve closely followed the proposal for a shoreline hotel on Lake Flower shared various reactions to a new plan for the property on Friday.

Some voiced strong support for it. Others said they still have concerns.

A group of unidentified investors calling their company Saranac Lake Resort LLC plan to build a four-star, 93-room hotel on the site of three Lake Flower Avenue motels they’re under contract to purchase. The properties were previously under the control of Chris LaBarge of Lake Flower Lodging, but those agreements have expired and LaBarge now appears to be out of the picture.

Over the last few weeks, village Mayor Clyde Rabideau said he’s been talking to Jacob Wright, a former member of Lake Flower Lodging who’s now a consultant for Saranac Lake Resort.

“He’s worked diligently to put the deal back together and make it go forward,” Rabideau said. “It’s pretty exciting.

“A lodging facility is something we desperately need. I like the revamped design a lot. I like the fact that he’s not encroaching at all (except for a corner of a proposed restaurant) on the 50-foot setback from the lake and he’s lowered the height of the building. All in all, I think it’s a great plan and should do wonders for Saranac Lake.”

Rabideau had kind words for LaBarge, wished him luck and said he hopes he keeps Saranac Lake in mind for future investments. The mayor said he doesn’t know the identities of these new investors, but he’s “very confident” they can bring the project to fruition.

“They’ve got a huge track record, a tremendous portfolio,” Rabideau said. “They’re the real deal, and they’ll put the real deal here in Saranac Lake. With that kind of money and resources behind them, I’m sure they’ve done all their homework and are ready to go.”

Caperton Tissot was one of several outspoken opponents of Lake Flower Lodging’s proposal. After reviewing Saranac Lake Resort’s website Friday, she said the new developers “have clearly listened to the public and attempted to rework the resort’s design to alleviate some of the many concerns.

“The footprint is smaller, sections of the building slightly lower, hotel amenities open to the public with a discount for locals, and a design intended to be environmentally responsible,” Tissot wrote in an email.

“However, some of the previous objections still remain: too large for the site, a design that does not fit the character of the village, creation of an intolerable parking and traffic snafu, and the use of land that has not been tested for toxic contamination next to a bay that has been deemed a superfund site.”

Tissot also said she’s worried the new rooms and those of the soon-to-be open Hotel Saranac would cause a “market glut, making it more difficult for either hotel to successfully operate.”

Rich Shapiro, board president of the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, had been a supporter of LaBarge’s Lake Flower hotel plan. The Enterprise provided him Friday with information about Saranac Lake Resort’s proposal, and he said, “It looks like a nice design.

“It has porches, which fit more in the Saranac Lake character of cure porches,” Shapiro said. “Eight feet lower down (in height) I think will be much more acceptable to a lot of people. Twenty-eight feet shorter (in length) certainly makes for a much smaller footprint. I think this should be a much more acceptable design to the people of Saranac Lake.”

Shapiro said current travelers look for a different kind of lodging than the motels can provide.

“They’re looking for something more modern with more amenities, and this is something we can use to attract people to stay in Saranac Lake,” he said.

Fred Mueller co-owns the Adirondack Motel, one of the motels that would be replaced by this new hotel. He said the contracts he and the other motel owners have signed with Saranac Lake Resort prevent them from speaking about the plan.

“We just hope it’s a great project,” he said.

The state Adirondack Park Agency will likely have jurisdiction over the hotel because its height would exceed 40 feet. The project will also need site plan approval from the village Planning Board.

Village Community Development Director Jeremy Evans said he met with Wright earlier this week but hasn’t yet seen all the details of the new plan.

“I look forward to seeing what (Wright) is going to propose and how it’s different than what we saw in the spring,” Evans said, “and to see how he’s addressed some of the lingering concerns that have been raised by many different parties, whether it’s the village or the Planning Board or the public in general.”

Over the past eight months, Evans said everybody’s been wondering what’s been happening with the project, including himself. He said his biggest concern is a March deadline for site plan approval in the village’s Lake Flower Planned Unit Development District law.

“I certainly don’t want that deadline to be used to pressure the Planning Board into any decision,” Evans said. “I would have preferred that an application was made earlier so that wasn’t a concern on anyone’s mind, but it certainly is a concern now.

“It doesn’t mean there is a way in there that the applicant can seek an extension from the village. It just would have been better had this process start earlier in the year.”

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