Entrance to Experience Outdoors on state Route 73 near Lake Placid (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — Despite opposition from a group of neighbors, the town-village Joint Review Board on Wednesday voted to allow a local business to host special events, with some conditions attached.

The owners of Experience Outdoors, a zip line and team building course on state Route 73, are now allowed to host special events on weekends, once a month, from May to October. The business isn’t allowed to have any amplified music or sound at the events, and the events must end by 9 p.m., the review board ruled. The business owners also won’t be allowed to open zip lines for the events.

The state Adirondack Park Agency, which also has jurisdiction over the property, approved a request to host concerts from Experience Outdoors months ago.

The review board — with the exception of members Bob Rafferty and Bill Walton, who recused themselves — made its determination after a discussion over whether it should issue an approval temporarily and reassess next year.

Walton, who co-owns Experience Outdoors, did not leave the room while the review board made its determination on Wednesday and instead sat before the review board as a representative of the business.

Board member Chip Bissell brought up the idea of retaining some sort of jurisdiction over the project for one year after approval.

“It seems that this would be a fair way … probably doesn’t seem fair to the applicant, but it would be a way for us to still oversee this and have some control,” Bissell said. “We put the restriction on it, we get to revisit it. If all hell’s breaking loose, then next summer, it’s done.”

Experience Outdoors co-owner Marc Doering took issue with that phrasing — “all hell’s breaking loose” — and asked the board who would be the judge of that. He said his neighbors have “shown the inability to tell the truth,” which “has been documented in their letters to (the review board).”

Multiple people who live near the business have submitted letters to the review board — and spoke at a public hearing on the project last month — to express concerns about alleged code violations and noise pollution. In the past, some neighbors have also complained about the business to the APA. The business was cited by the APA in 2019 for tree cutting beyond what was authorized and in 2018 for staying open later than allowed, according to APA and review board documents obtained by the Enterprise through Freedom of Information Act requests. Doering has denied all allegations of code violations.

Doering told the review board that he thinks it’s very important that the person who judges whether things are going well is an independent third party.

The review board will retain jurisdiction for one year. Its approval typically isn’t final until the board’s attorney finalizes all the documents.

Originally, the owners of Experience Outdoors asked the Joint Review Board to authorize the business to host special events three days a month from May to October, with those events expected to last until 10 p.m. At least one of the events may have included the business’s high ropes course, according to the original project application, so Doering and Walton also asked for permission to extend the business’s operating hours from 6 to 9 p.m. during special events. After hearing feedback from neighbors at a public hearing on July 7, the business owners altered their request, paring down the number of special events to one per month, only on weekends, with no use of the high ropes course.

Ultimately, the review board voted to approve the revised application with conditions on Wednesday.