TRUTH Response to the Public Hearing held September 22 regarding the proposed PUDD law and the Lake Flower Spa and Resort: The Village board has asked our Community Development Director, Jeremy Evans, to respond to each question and “assertion” made by those speaking at our recent public hearing in a written report for the Trustees at their next work session slated for Monday, September 29, in the village offices. Some assertions at the public hearing and written commentary in our local paper are untrue and need to be countered for the sake of accuracy and due process. For example: At the public hearing, one of our friends from Bloomingdale claimed that the board is allowing the resort developer to seek a PILOT agreement and avoid local property taxes. This allegation is totally false. ANYONE can seek a PILOT agreement, even the developer of the Hotel Saranac and the owner of the Best Western. The village cannot control that; we can neither allow nor disallow. Another … from a person living outside the village: FEMA…and the potential for flooding. The hotel development, if approved, will not affect the potential of the area’s flooding one way or the other. A flood will happen with or without a replacement hotel on site as it is classified as an “Act of God.” But here’s the thing: By the efforts of the developers, EVERYONE along the lake and river will be able to sell their properties and grow. If FEMA does not approve the mathematical equation, hundreds of shore owners will lose money and the potential to sell their properties… because “nobody knew.” How does that sound? Another neighbor to the village accused the board of “Tweaking.” “Tweak, tweak, tweak,” she squawked with disdain. Well, hello, that’s our job in this case, to modify the recommendations of the Planning Board to better benefit the village. We are SUPPOSED to tweak the recommendations and not rubber stamp the Planning Board. And by the way, the Panning Board recommended approval of the project. And in today’s Adirondack Daily Enterprise, an opinion piece, written from another person from outside the village, accused: “The village board was going to hold a public hearing, immediately after which it would (again prematurely) vote on the plan.” This is totally, totally wrong. The board called for a public hearing to listen to the opinions for the citizens of the village, not to enact a law as we have determined that we will hold “a series of work sessions” first. A vote on the PUDD law was NEVER, NEVER scheduled. This is a gross misstatement of fact. There are more, but these four serve as our examples. So, please, be it known, that the Saranac Lake Village Board will consider the positive recommendation for the approval of the PUDD law for this project by our Planning Board at its own pace and in its own time and will make our determination based upon facts and not conjecture and falsehoods. That is our job. And should the village board approve the law, it will go back to the Planning Board for the rest of the planning process.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 23:22:57 +0000
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