SARANAC LAKE — The village Board of Trustees postponed setting a six-month moratorium on development of a handful of contiguous parcels near Old Military Road and Park Avenue Monday.

Several residents of the neighborhood who showed up to speak at a public hearing for the moratorium stowed their remarks to use at a later date. It is unclear whether a subdivision is planned for any of the parcels.

“Sorry, we never did a moratorium before. The public hearing is not really postponed,” said Mayor Clyde Rabideau. “Our resident attorney found a couple of defects in the parcel numbers.” Rabideau said the village would hold another public hearing after the corrections are made. The parcels are located on the west-facing slope of Mount Pisgah.

There will be another public hearing on Oct. 23 during the village board meeting.

The moratorium also requires approval from the village Development Board and the county planning board, and is subject to State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), which measures the impact of development plans on the environment.

Mayor Rabideau said that the moratorium should give the village enough time to review information and complaints by neighbors of the parcels about the effects of developing the lots. The village will review the zoning of the parcels during the moratorium period. It can also extend the moratorium another six months, if necessary.

The moratorium would suspend any building permits on the affected parcels and halt the issuance of new ones.

“Basically,” Mayor Rabideau said in a later interview, “it’s a neighborhood shoved up against a steep mountainside. They’re subject to rolling boulders, trees coming down. It’s a very unstable slope. One resident did have a boulder punch a hole through their living room wall.

“The neighborhood feels they are in danger should construction happen uphill from them.”

The lots are zoned residential, which opens up the possibility that houses would be built upon them. Trustee Rich Shapiro noted that many houses in the village of Saranac Lake are built on slopes of 15 percent or similar grades.

The village recently finalized its Comprehensive Plan, which included a new zoning code.

“It’s a pre-existing subdivision, so in theory housing development is a possibility,” Rabideau continued.

Rabideau said he was confident the moratorium would give village officials enough time to rezone the parcel, should that prove necessary.