Christine Collins, left, and Bob Farmer stand in the Mountain View Performing Arts Field, where they plan to have a concert venue. The village is also preparing the decommissioned landfill behind them to become athletics fields. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The village board postponed its vote on a request to change the District C3 zoning code to allow amusement and recreation services — which would pave the way for a music venue proposed by locals Bob Farmer and Christine Collins — after a long and heated public comment session on Monday.

Many neighbors of Farmer’s property on Willow Way and McKenzie Pond Road, where he hopes to open the Mountain View Performing Arts Field, showed up to voice their concerns about potential noise and litter from the venue and how that would impact their quality of life. They were also frustrated with the village because many only learned about this proposed zoning change a few days before the hearing through an article in the Enterprise.

Village Mayor Jimmy Williams said that there are plenty more steps — each with more votes and more public comment sessions — before this venue could become a reality. But concerned locals saw this zoning change as a first step on a road they don’t want to go down.

While Farmer said the field in question could be used for many things. It could be used as another athletic field to supplement other recreational fields the village plans to construct at an adjacent former landfill, or a venue for events, weddings, artisan fairs or festivals — the focus was on what Collins called the “c-word.” Concerts, that is.

She said they would not be crazy Woodstock ’99-type events.

Collins said she has 21 years of experience in the music organizing industry, with extensive knowledge in safety and organization. She started booking shows when she was 14, organizing concerts at The Getaway Youth Center, the predecessor to the Saranac Lake Youth Center. Collins sees positives in the project for Saranac Lake kids and the local economy.

Neighbors felt the only two people to benefit from the venue would be Collins and Farmer.

–

Votes tabled

–

The village board, at Trustee Matt Scollin’s suggestion, agreed to table its vote on the zoning change until their next meeting on Oct. 10. Scollin said this will give the community more time to digest the information and for the village to update its zoning map to include the landfill.

There will be another public hearing held at that meeting before the votes.

The district is the site of the former landfill, which was capped in 1996, and also includes North Country Community College and several residential neighborhoods, including the Pine View Apartments complex.

Amusement and recreation is currently allowed in districts B-1, B-2, B-4, E-2, G, I and J2. The village fields on the former landfill don’t need the zoning change to be used for athletics, since they are government-owned.

There are two properties in question. Farmer’s field — at 12 Moose Way, off Willow Way — is outside village lines and in the town of North Elba. He is planning a venue there. The village fields on top of the former landfill are directly next to Farmer’s field, inside village lines. The village is planning athletic fields there.

Long path

The village isn’t approving the concert venue yet. There are many steps to get there. Farmer’s field is not even in the village right now. His property is located within the town of North Elba, not the village of Saranac Lake.

Farmer initially asked North Elba to use his property as a venue. The town board rejected this, feeling it would set a precedent for the town of using a residential district for commercial reasons. To become part of the the village, which holds District C3, it would need to be annexed into the village.

North Elba would need to agree to an annexation, since it would be losing tax revenue.

North Elba Town Supervisor Derek Doty said this is all very preliminary, but indicated his board might consider an annexation in the future.

If the annexation is approved and the village’s zoning change is approved, then the venue would still not be guaranteed. To hold concerts there, Farmer would need a permit from the village development board. Williams said the development board is diligent with its permits. They don’t “wing it” he said.

–

Sound arguments

–

Shannon Madden said she and her husband Pat moved to McKenzie Pond Road for the peace and quiet. She called this proposed venue an “invasion.”

Collins said she wants to work with the neighbors, and to hear what kind of music they want to hear. But for most part, they told her, there’s no changing their minds.

“It’s the wrong spot,” Shannon Madden said.

Neighbors shared their view of what this venue could mean — screaming music, cigarette butts, urination and trashing of the pristine land, along with noise pollution they believe will be heard throughout town and disrupt animals. Some neighbors said they can already hear music from the weekly shows at the Waterhole and Music on the Green in Riverside Park, and it irritates them.

Collins compared the sound range for fireworks — 150 to 175 decibels — with a concert sound range — 90 to 120 decibels. But Shannon Madden said the difference is in the length of the sound — 15 minutes for a fireworks show to a couple of hours for a concert.

Collins said they are only planning five or so concerts a season, and during the day.

“That’s how it starts,” Pat Madden said, suggesting there could be more concerts planned, including ones at night.

He suggested doing a “sound check” to see how noise travels in the area.

Denise Krawczyk also said McKenzie Pond Road can’t take the extra traffic. The road is already dangerous, she said, referencing fatal accidents on that road — one recently and others in the past.

Melinda Bard said she’s been waiting for years to play on these athletic fields with her kids. She’s excited about them and said they bring value to the area. But she felt a concert venue does not bring value.

Farmer got support from the owners of the apartment complex. But residents pointed out that the owners live in Glens Falls. They said there are 48 apartments in Pine View, with lots of elderly residents.

Farmer was expecting some sort of this response. He said based on the response he saw on social media, it was apparent people were opposed to his plans. He said the two-week delay of the village vote is a two week delay to his plans, but he has to go along with the process.

Still, it’s concerning for him. Now is when they should be booking bands for next year, and with numerous steps to still make and public opposition to the project, booking without a venue is not possible.

–

Distrust of the board

– Shannon Madden, Bard and Krawczyk decried what they saw as an “abrupt attempt” to change the zoning in their neighborhood.

If they didn’t see the Enterprise article on Saturday, they would have never known about the hearing. And if they weren’t there to talk, the board wouldn’t know their thoughts. Shannon Madden called this a “slimy move.”

Though Williams was adamant the village wasn’t trying to dupe anyone or slip anything by them, this animosity was something that appeared to linger throughout the meeting.

Williams said things have been going the way they’re supposed to, that the village has been following the law for how it needs to notify these things. But the members of the public felt it’s such a big change, they should have been given more notice.

Williams said the idea to work with Farmer came up while he was up at the landfill site and Farmer approached him with a “public-private partnership” with the village’s athletics fields, offering his as another field for games. Farmer said he’s spent $20,000 making his field playable.

Williams said with inflation, he is looking for extra revenue streams for the village and offering parking for concerts at the village landfill sounded good.

Williams thinks a music venue will add value to the village.

Earlier this month, the village Development Board supported the zoning code request and sent it to the village board to consider. Williams said no “red flags” about the project have been raised in this process.

In 2015, Saranac Lake and the town of North Elba were awarded a $435,000 grant from the state to help convert the dump into a multi-use sports complex with playing fields, similar to the North Elba Athletic Fields at the closed landfill in Lake Placid.

This year, Williams said there’s been lots of progress as the village has agreements with municipalities around the area to bring in hundreds of truckloads of fill to level out the playing fields.

Village Treasurer Patrick Murphy said of the grant, which was split between Saranac Lake and North Elba, Saranac Lake has spent $227,779 and had $146,558 reimbursed. He said they are waiting on another $25,000 reimbursement.

Murphy said the grant has a 75% reimbursement rate. The contract completion date was extended a couple of times, but ended in 2021. Anything spent after then, Murphy said, is not reimbursable. The rest of the project will be funded through the village general fund, he said.

Williams said they need to close this grant before they can get more grants from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

At the Monday meeting, Saranac Lake Development Board Chair Allie Pelletieri asked the village board to name the athletic fields after Wendell Dean Naegele II, a village trustee, town councilman and “community-minded person” who died in 2012.