SARANAC LAKE — The owners of a marina in Saranac Lake are appealing a delay in the state Adirondack Park Agency decision-making process on their proposed expansion.

The APA issued a third notice of incomplete application to the marina in August, but the marina has appealed. The APA board will consider the marina’s appeal of a request for additional information at this week’s regular APA meeting.

LS Marina LLC purchased the former Crescent Bay Marina properties on Lower Saranac Lake in 2014 for $1.4 million and proposed an expanded, solar-powered marina. The company first sought a permit from the town of Harrietstown and received it after a lengthy review.

“We thought it would be a simple, easy process with the APA, and here we are a year-and-a-half later. We’ve addressed all of the staff’s concerns, and we’re still in limbo,” Lake Placid resident Mike Damp of LS Marina LLC said in a press release. “We actually met with APA staff three years ago to get their opinions on the docks before submitting our proposal to the town. In fact, APA staff encouraged us to go to the town Planning Board first in order to make their review easier.”

The marina consists of two sites: the primary marina at Crescent Bay and an “annex” on Ampersand Bay. There would be 278 total boat slips at the two locations, according to Damp.

Damp also said that the owners of LS Marina LLC have since spent an additional $475,000 “resulting from continued delays and additional information requests from the Adirondack Park Agency staff,” the release said.

“And they still can’t move forward on plans to replace the former dilapidated marina structures with an expanded, environmentally friendly, state-of-the-art commercial marina that will restore full service to Lower and Middle Saranac lakes.

The release goes on to say that “the area of the bay in focus has been choked by invasive milfoil for many years and that his (Damp’s) proposal includes annual milfoil removal and ongoing management and prevention.”

The agency had classified the area at Ampersand Bay as a “Value 1” wetland which carries with it the strictest protections, but after LS Marina LLC commissioned its own study of fish populations, the APA changed its position and classified the area as a Value 2 wetland, which, according to the release, would permit the expected boat traffic from the marina.

The marina would require a variance to win approval for its covered docks, plus a permit due to the wetlands. Since the docks are covered, APA staff has said they are considered structures and need a variance due to shoreline setback restrictions.

In LS Marina LLC’s appeal, lawyers for the company say “its proposal to cover slips in its marina expansion involves a pre-existing marina (circa 1924) in a hamlet area.” Hamlet is the APA’s least restrictive private land classification.

“The applicant’s position has been rejected by agency staff who now have determined that the covered docks constitute a ‘structure’ which triggers shoreline setback provisions.”

The marina has already removed most of the older structures with approval from both the APA and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.