St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment and Recovery Centers has acquired this apartment house at 44 Marshall St., seen Thursday, and plans to renovate and rent the five units inside to local veterans. (Enterprise photo — Jesse Adcock)

SARANAC LAKE — The village Development Board Tuesday night approved renovation plans for an apartment building that would be leased only to veterans, while some neighbors disputed the project.

St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment and Recovery Centers acquired the five-unit apartment building at 44 Marshall St. in fall 2018. St. Joe’s has been referring to the project as Harvey House.

“The building right now, in this condition, is in poor disrepair,” said Michael Laramee, project manager for Andrew Chary Architects, contracted by St. Joe’s for the project. “The exterior side and windows are in bad shape. The siding is starting to crumble off the building.”

On the outside of the building, the Development Board was asked to approve new vinyl siding on the building, new windows and repainted trim, and a new asphalt shingle roof.

“The interior restoration will update floor plans, add insulation to energy code, update interior finishes, update kitchens, update electrical and plumbing services,” Laramee said. “This upgrades the entire building to the current electrical, plumbing, mechanical and energy and life safety codes.”

Donnie Ecret, facilities director for St. Joe’s, said he expects the construction period to take six months with an anticipated completion date of August 2019.

Robert Ross, CEO of St. Joe’s, was present at the meeting to explain the project’s goal.

“The entire purpose of this was to give veterans who are living in Saranac Lake an opportunity for living together in a community, which is a very important issue for veterans,” Ross said. “They benefit from that.”

The first concern brought by the public was by Margaret Campion, who lives next to the property.

“The boundary survey that is in the permit documents states that the boundary line between the properties is south 67 degrees 20 minutes,” Campion said. “My deed states the boundary is south 78, 22 minutes.”

She said that as a child, her father was always strict about not going on other people’s property — and she remembered that her property line was a foot away from 44 Marshall St. — just enough space to accommodate propane tanks. According to a survey presented by Chary Architects, this boundary was about 10 feet.

“All that I’m saying is that there’s a conflict between oral history, my deed and the deed of the prior owner, and I’d like to have that addressed before this proceeds,” Campion said. “OK, so you’re asking for a permit to remove siding. If they put scaffolding on what is my property and there is an injury, I am at risk. And it disagrees with my deed. That’s the problem.”

The Development Board agreed that this is a issue that needs to be resolved and made it a condition for approval of the project at this stage.

“Prior to a certificate of occupancy, the boundary disagreement between the Campion property and the property in question should be resolved to the satisfaction of both properties,” said Tom Boothe, chair of the Development Board. “That resolution must be submitted to the code enforcement office.”

Another neighbor, Todd Smith, brought different concerns. Harvey House is in an H-1 district, which is zoned as residential, and the property is not being considered for a change of use — still defined by the village code as a multi-family dwelling.

“This is an opportunity to make sure that this project is done right,” Smith said, who served on the Development Board himself in the past. “This is not a traditional multi-family house.”

Smith said his main concern was that the end use of the building is not a traditional landlord-tenant relationship but rather an apartment building owned by an institution leasing units to a specific group.

Ross said St. Joe’s will use state grants to facilitate rent subsidies for veterans whose incomes fall beneath a certain level.

One of those grants, the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative, which Ross confirmed will be used, is available to veterans, but also other groups at risk for unmet housing needs: people who have suffered chronic homelessness, people with developmental disabilities or people with substance use disorder, among others.

Ross said St. Joe’s has no plans to rent the units to anyone but veterans.

“To Todd’s concern … there are not going to be offices of St. Joe’s, there are not going to be staff who are there … observing how people are living,” Ross said. “From that perspective, I think it’s not any different than if somebody from a medical service came to your house or to your apartment and administered any kind of assistance. … They’re coming to your apartment, and it is your apartment, and you have a lease for it. So it’s not any different.”

Village Code Enforcement Officer Paul Blaine said that while the project does fall under the definition of a multi-family dwelling in Saranac Lake’s code, that’s only because there’s no definition for supportive housing.

“This is what this is really, supportive housing,” Blaine said. “But looking at our code, it fit under the definition of a multi-family dwelling.”

He added that in the future he may work with Ross to develop a code amendment to include supportive housing in the village code. However, if the amendment is made in the future, he said it would not make the Development Board any more restrictive in its review.

“Say it’s a five-unit multi-family or supportive housing,” Blaine said. “In your review, you can’t be any more strict than that.”