Christine Collins, right, and Bob Farmer stand in the Mountain View Performing Arts Field, where they had planned to have a concert venue. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The village board chose to reject a zoning code change that would have allowed amusement and recreation services in its C3 district on Monday, derailing plans for a multi-use event space, concert venue and athletic field.

Bob Farmer owns property on Moose Way, connected to McKenzie Pond Road by Willow Way. In front of his house is a large grassy area around the size of a high school football field. Beyond that is the village’s former landfill, which was decommissioned 27 years ago, and which the village has a $435,000 grant to convert into athletic fields. Farmer’s proposal has been to offer his field as an additional athletic field to supplement the village’s adjacent fields and also to turn it into the Mountain View Performing Arts Field, which would be a multi-use space for concerts and other events. He brought on Saranac Lake native and Potsdam resident Christine Collins to be the venue manager.

While Farmer had said the field could be used for many things — sports or a venue for fairs and festivals — the public’s focus was on what Collins called the “c-word.” Concerts, that is.

Dozens of people living in the area around Farmer’s property turned out to board meeting to oppose the project for a variety of reasons — concerns that it would bring noise, traffic, litter, crime and a general disruption of their lives. Farmer tried to allay their concerns to little avail. But it was because of a technicality that the board rejected his request for the zoning change — Farmer’s property is not in the village.

His property is in the town of North Elba, just outside the village boundaries. Farmer had hoped to get the zoning change and then seek to have his property annexed into the village and into this rezoned district.

The village board told Farmer to get his property annexed into the village first, and then they would consider the zoning change.

After the meeting, Farmer said this was not ideal for him and that whether or not he’ll seek an annexation from North Elba is “up in the air.”

“The idea of annexing my property into the village prior to knowing whether I can use it … it makes zero sense,” he said.

Farmer had initially asked the town of North Elba to use his property as a venue. The town council rejected this, feeling it would set a precedent within the town of a property being used for commercial purposes in a residential district.

The North Elba Town Council would need to agree to an annexation, since it would cause a loss of tax revenue. Last month, North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty indicated that his board might consider an annexation in the future, but on Monday, Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams said he believes North Elba does not have a lot of appetite to allow the annexation.

If his property were annexed, Farmer would be paying additional village taxes with no guarantee that the zoning change would be approved.

After the vote he told the board he was “very disappointed” that their decision came down to this issue.

“I think it coming down to a nuance is simply an antiquated thought process,” Collins said.

This rejection means Farmer’s field will likely not be able to be used as an additional athletic field for the village to hold events on as it seeks to use the two fields proposed at the neighboring former landfill for rugby, lacrosse, Surge and high school games.

Farmer said to upkeep the field would be expensive and he would need to charge a fee to cover his maintenance. But it is illegal for him to charge a fee the way the land is zoned in North Elba.

After the meeting, Farmer and Collins indicated they are not done pursuing their plans.

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The vote

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During the meeting, Saranac Lake resident Jacquelyn Dubee said she believes there should not be a vote before annexation. This was eventually the issue that the board agreed they should kill the proposal over.

“This land isn’t even annexed. I feel that it is unfair for the community members to be forced to take a say on what we’re going to be using that land for when we don’t want it to be used for anything,” Dubee said to big applause form the gathered crowd.

Last month, the village Development Board supported the zoning code request and sent it to the village board to consider. The village board rejected the development board’s recommendation, which is uncommon.

The C3 district also includes North Country Community College and the Pine View Apartments complex.

There were three resolutions on the zoning change for the board to vote on Monday — the change itself, as well as assertions that the change conformed to the State Environmental Quality Review Act and Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, which are both required for a zoning change.

Trustee Kelly Brunette felt the SEQR application was incomplete. It stopped short of answering all the questions, she said.

Village Clerk Amanda Hopf said in these applications, not all questions have to be answered if the first ones are answered the right way. This is the way Matt Rogers of LaBella Associates, with whom the village has been contracting to fill its community development director role, had recommended they do it.

Trustee Rich Shapiro also said some of the answers given were “erroneous.” He felt the zoning change — as the first step toward Farmer being able to operate a event space — would have an impact on aesthetics, traffic and noise. The SEQR application said it would not.

The matter came down to a difference of interpretation. Shapiro saw this zoning decision being about Farmer’s plans for his property. Williams, Rogers and the village development board saw it as just being about the zoning change in the district, and not about any specific potential project.

Williams felt the other interpretation was “three steps ahead of the cart” and that the vote was about zoning, not concerts. Local resident Melinda Bard argued that the rezoning is about concerts since it is the reason it was requested.

Shapiro said he only found an 10th of an acre of private land in the C3 district that is not owned by NCCC or the village. The rest of the district’s college and village land is exempt from zoning codes.

“We shouldn’t be doing anything for rezoning it because there’s no reason to until after Farmer’s property is annexed in. Then we can consider it,” Shapiro said. “I don’t understand why we’re doing a zoning change when there’s nothing in there that can take advantage of the zoning change.”

Trustee Matt Scollin said he supports the zoning change, but not related to a property that isn’t in the village yet. Trustee Tom Catillaz said he felt the same way.

Brunette thanked the Farmer family for their work and vision. Scollin said this is not a final decision, it’s a play for more time.

Without the LWRP and SEQR determinations, the development code amendment could not be adopted, and all trustees voted against it, too. All three resolutions failed. Brunette did vote “yes” on the LWRP determination on the law, but that failed 4-1.

Several neighbors said the zoning change proposal was “just wrong” and that the development board should not have advanced it.

Development Board Chair Allie Pelletieri stood up to explain why the board did what it did after their actions were called into question. He said their job was only to consider the zoning change.

“This was a request for amusement and recreation in C-3. This was not a request for a concert,” Pelletieri said. “When we took that application … we don’t project what’s going on.”

If Farmer wanted to hold concerts there that would be for the board to consider later, when he would have applied for a special use permit, the hardest permit to get in the village, he said.

Erin Donhauser called this process “sneaky.”

Attorney Matt Norfolk, who just moved into the neighborhood, called it “spot zoning” or “reverse spot zoning.”

“If you don’t hear it from them (the rest of the neighbors) you’re gonna hear it from me, like, in court,” Norfolk said.

Williams was offended that some people insinuated village malfeasance, asking him what he stands to gain and how many private conversations he’s had with Farmer.

He 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 said the village was not trying to be sneaky. He said anyone can request a zoning change and Farmer did. On his first visit up to the field it looked more remote to him, but he said his perspective had changed on that. He warned local residents that there will be sports events up there once the village gets its fields running. Most said they are OK with these.

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Public comment

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Dozens of residents packed the village meeting room on Monday, spilling out into the hallway.

Shannon Madden said she had gotten 200 signatures on a petition opposing the plan.

Opponents of the project spoke about it in “catastrophic” terms. At a maximum capacity of 3,000, Madden said it would constitute what she called a “full-town invasion” and she felt sick thinking about the change it would bring to their neighborhood.

They said McKenzie Pond Road was not build to carry that weight of so many people, and that traffic would slow emergency response times. Several said their homes are their biggest asset and worried this would lower their property value. Others said they felt it would accelerate the population loss by making people move away.

“I’m a NIMBY,” Barry Brogan declared, embracing the often pejorative term short for “Not In My Backyard.”

“I don’t want this venue that close,” he said.

Brogan said people stopped holding large concerts in Lake Placid and at the Plattsburgh Air Force base because of the “collateral damage” they caused.

Collins pitched the multi-use space as a hope for a village in decline and in need. Saranac Lake’s population is decreasing, she said. The population is getting older, and contributing less to taxes. Meanwhile, the median household income is around $55,000 and many rely on government programs to support their families. She said the town is in need of an economic driver and felt the venue could have been one.

She said she had the silent majority of support.

“There is a majority of a repressed community that isn’t here tonight, afraid their voices would cost them their employment, their livelihood or risk retaliation should they speak against the opposition,” Collins said.

Dubee said more opponents didn’t show up for fear of retaliation, too.

“This small town can be cruel sometimes,” Collins said, to laughter from the people seated in the room.

The two weeks since the last village meeting felt like she was the target of a “witch hunt,” Collins said, with people making threats and questionable comments to her over emails and social media.

“This is about this village and its desperate need for change, culture, diversity and enrichment,” Collins said. “While I respect the past, we must let go of antiquated thinking and begin to move forward.”

Collins said she felt misunderstood. Collins, Williams and several neighbors pointed out there were a lot of misconceptions, confusions and misinformation around the project.

Some thought Farmer was proposing a building on the field. Others talked about music keeping them up at night, but Farmer was adamant these would not be all-night parties and would actually stop long before noise ordinances took effect.

Collins clarified that this would not exclusively be a “concert venue,” but more of an “open concept space” for a multitude of events. She cited studies that multi-use spaces have no impact on crime rates. The 3,000 capacity was based solely on the field’s dimensions, she said, and would likely not be met.

Collins also felt there was a “false narrative” that Farmer is a selfish guy looking to get rich. She said he’s allowing the public access to his land and was being generous.

Farmer acknowledged he hoped to make money on the field, but also said he wanted to provide something for the community to do.

The two were disappointed about the turnout, but in her final remarks, Collins said her story is not done, and this setback is just an ellipses.