A man stands next to the village clock on Main Street, Lake Placid, Friday. The clock, Mayor Art Devlin said, is currently not working and will be fixed as soon as possible. There was some salt damage to the clock and further damage to the seating area that needs to be repaired. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — The village Board of Trustees has scheduled two public hearings on Monday, one regarding the smoking of marijuana in public places and another on proposed updates to local vacation rental regulations.

Both public hearings will happen ahead of the village’s board meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday at the North Elba Town Hall. The hearing on vacation rental regulations will be a joint hearing with the North Elba Town Council. Mayor Art Devlin said Friday that he does not expect the village board to vote on the proposed laws that night; the village is looking for as much public input as possible.

Residents can participate in person or via the video conferencing software GoToMeeting.

To join, visit https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/761247309 or call 1-669-224-3412, access code 761-247-309.

Smoking law

The village’s proposed law on smoking in public places would expand on existing regulations that ban the smoking of cigarettes in public parks. If adopted, the proposed law would ban the smoking of cigars, cigarettes, pipes, marijuana, e-cigarettes and “similar products (that) pose a threat to the health, safety and well-being of the citizens of the village of Lake Placid who do not smoke.” Smoking would be banned not just at public parks, but on all village properties; anywhere within 50 feet of the town hall, library or any other “public” property entrance; and on any public highway, street, sidewalk or public place, according to the law.

“Obviously, we’re trying to prevent marijuana smoking on Main Street,” Mayor Art Devlin said Friday.

The full text of the proposed law is available at http://villageoflakeplacid.ny.gov/content/Generic/View/130.

The village board has not yet proposed any legislation regarding the sale of marijuana within the village. A new state law legalizing recreational marijuana for adults 21 years old and over includes a provision that allows towns, villages and cities to ban dispensaries, decline to offer on-site consumption licenses to businesses and even impose civil fines for violations, although consumption of cannabis will still be legal. Legal marijuana isn’t expected to arrive in a retail setting until at least 2022, but local governments have until Dec. 31 of this year to adopt local laws banning dispensaries and on-site consumption licenses, according to the state law.

“We’ve still got time with that,” Devlin said. “We’re keeping our minds open and waiting until the last possible moment to gather all the information.”

Opting out would mean not collecting tax revenue from marijuana sales.

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Vacation rental law

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The village and town of North Elba share a joint land use code, though the two governments can adopt different regulations regarding vacation rentals. On Monday, the town council and village board will hear public comment on four changes to the vacation rental regulations outlined in the municipalities’ joint code.

Those changes include:

¯ In a section that outlines the right of a code enforcement officer to inspect short-term rental properties to ensure compliance with the town and village’s regulations, the proposed law would clarify that the officer would need to obtain “express consent” from the homeowner first before conducting an inspection. The code office typically alerts homeowners ahead of time anyway, but the proposed law would add legal language clarifying that.

¯ In a later section that outlines that same right of a code enforcement officer to inspect a property, the same change would be made.

¯ In a section of the current law that requires vacation rental owners to display their rental permit near the front entrance of the rental, and says that the code enforcement officer can require “other information” to be “on prominent display,” the proposed law would require the permit be displayed “in an area easily viewed by its occupants” — not necessarily the front entrance — and the code enforcement officer can require “other information” to be displayed “within the interior of the short-term rental unit.”

¯ A section of the law that reads, “any property owner found in willful violation of the provisions of this local law shall be required to reimburse the town for its reasonable costs of enforcement, including reimbursement for staff time and reasonable attorney’s fees,” would be repealed entirely.

The full text of the law is available at http://villageoflakeplacid.ny.gov/content/Generic/View/137.