To the editor:

When the Adirondack Daily Enterprise ran a straw poll on the top issue facing the village of Saranac Lake today, the top response by far was housing (Feb 13; see also related poll results May 7 and May 14). Businesses struggle to fill positions because people they would like to hire cannot find a place to live. Many village residents’ housing is insecure, more than they can afford, or of low quality. They understandably want to see concrete action from their elected leaders to alleviate this crisis.

The Housing Task Force would like to highlight two specific steps which the village board can take. The first step, which has already been advocated by two Board members (“Imagine the Housing Possibilities,” March 2), is to begin the process of turning 43 Will Rogers Drive into housing. This is 10-and-a-half acres of prime real estate along the rail trail, between a pond and a grocery store. It is owned by the village and is used by the DPW to mine sand and store gravel and snow. While it is undoubtedly convenient for the DPW to have this space, there are other places to get sand and dump snow while this land is put to a higher use. We urge the village board not to wait for the mine to be exhausted.

The second step is to revise the Saranac Lake Development Code to allow multi-family housing in more neighborhoods throughout the village. Saranac Lake has many large single family homes, including former cure cottages, which are outsized for the families living there, and it would make economic sense to divide them into two to four units, as has already been done in some places. Should anyone wish to do this, village zoning ought to allow it. The Housing Task Force will continue to advocate for these changes until they are adopted into law.

Ben Douglass

Matthew Scollin

Jodi Gunther

Joe Gladd

Brian Draper

Steve Erman

Trevor Jackson

Ann Telfer

Katie Stiles

Douglas Crowell

Mark Legeza

The Housing Task Force

Saranac Lake