SARANAC LAKE — The village finally has new a land-use code, although it hasn’t taken effect yet.

The village Board of Trustees adopted the new Unified Development Code Monday night, ending a process that involved years of work by a volunteer committee, a paid consultant, village officials and the village Board of Trustees. It replaces the current land-use code, which was last updated in 2002.

Community Development Director Jeremy Evans said after Monday’s meeting that the new code won’t become official until some recent changes are finalized and the document has been filed with New York’s Department of State.

“It will be a couple weeks,” Evans said.

One of the biggest and most controversial changes is also a few weeks from taking effect: the elimination of the existing Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, the functions of which will be combined into a single, five-member Development Board.

“I think at a December meeting we’ll have a resolution that says here’s the Development Board, identifying its members,” Evans said.

Evans said he’ll make recommendations to the Board of Trustees on potential members for the Development Board. He said the list could include current planning and zoning board members or other people.

The idea of creating one board to handle both zoning interpretation and land-use and development proposals sparked concern from some village residents during the public comment process on the new code.

In a last-minute letter the board received before Monday’s vote, Old Military Road residents Sarah Clarkin and Richard Weber, who works as director of the state Adirondack Park Agency’s Regulatory Programs division, said the merger will “result in a decrease of diverse opinion and an increased concentration of power.” They also said fewer people will want to join or be able to serve on the Development Board, given the number of meetings involved and the amount of education and training they’ll need to handle both planning and zoning in the village.

“The village board, which appoints these individuals, will have a smaller pool of individuals from which to choose,” Clarkin and Weber wrote.

Speaking to the board Monday, Evans referred to the resolution adopting the code, which says combining the planning and zoning boards will “provide net benefits to the village from efficiencies in administration and the regulatory process compared to the benefits of keeping two separate boards.”

“There are certainly some things to consider,” Evans said, “but the Board (of Trustees) wants to go ahead with it, while also watching to see how it performs because you could always change it back.”

Evans also addressed another issue several Old Military Road residents have raised about a proposal to allow townhouses and multi-family homes in a new zoning district that borders Mount Pisgah, behind Old Military Road and near the American Management Association. Clarkin and Weber, among others, have said the steep slopes and the shallow bedrock on the slopes of Mount Pisgah make the area unsuitable for development.

The resolution the board adopted Monday says the issue will be reviewed.

“The board wanted to consider it, look at more information but most importantly get some additional feedback from myself and the Planning Board on what might be appropriate in the near future,” Evans said.

There will also be more review of a request to let gas station owners use LED-lit signs to post their gas prices. The new code prohibits most internally lit or neon signs.

“I don’t think there’s any desire by anybody on the board to have LED signs everywhere in the village, but there was a recognition that there’s certainly some convenience to everybody if you can figure out how you can limit it to just gas stations,” Evans said.

Questions had also been raised about whether some of the new code’s design standards go far enough, like for lighting, stormwater retention and parking lot screening and landscaping.

“Compared to what we have on the books right now, we’ve made some pretty dramatic improvements,” Evans responded. “It’s something the board wants to leave as is but monitor to make sure they’re working as we hope they work. They could always be changed and modified in the future.”

Before the board voted to adopt the code, Trustee Paul Van Cott acknowledged the many people who had a role in its development.

“We should thank all the people who worked on this, starting with the master plan, which led to the code, the work of Jeremy, the LA Group, the code committee and then bringing it to the village board,” Van Cott said. “You guys just took this thing apart and put it back together again in some really good ways.”

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On board

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Current Saranac Lake Zoning

Board of Appeals members

William Domenico, chair

Craig Catalano

Donna DiFara

Paul Herrmann

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Current Saranac Lake Planning Board members

Leslie Karasin, chair

Donna DiFara

C.J. Hagmann

Molly Hann

David Trudeau