Email: "Public meetings begin on N. Elba’s new land-use code"
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    LAKE PLACID — The first of four public meetings on a new land-use code for the town of North Elba and the village of Lake Placid was held Tuesday night at the Lake Placid Middle/High School auditorium.


    The new code, which is a combination of a comprehensive plan with long-range goals and the minimal standards of a land-use code, will make it easier to increase housing stock, and protect the watershed, ridgeline and sensitive corridors. It would also tighten restrictions on sign standards, lighting and vegetative cutting.    


    The code is three years in the making and was developed with public input, said chairman of the seven-person Technical Steering Committee Dean Dietrich. The new code will replace the existing code, adopted in 2000. It will address issues that have cropped up in the last several years, Dietrich said, like second-home development and the lack of affordable housing.


    The public expressed a desire to maintain scenic overlays and avoid upland development on ridgelines, Dietrich said.


    “Some single-family dwellings must be reviewed,” he said. “That is a major change.”


    A permit would also be required for vegetative cutting at more than a quarter of an acre. There would also be a 10-foot no-cut zone along Lake Placid and Mirror Lake and limited cutting within 35 feet of the shore.


    “We understand we are putting an onus on the landowner,” Dietrich said. “We are claiming some jurisdiction in this area.”


    The new code would also reduce light pollution by limiting decorative uplighting and outlining buildings. Also banned would be sandwich boards and changeable message signs. The new code also calls for a temporary ban on outdoor wood boilers until better standards are developed for the devices.


    “There is no gold standard,” Dietrich said. “Why do it until that standard is developed and O.K.?”


    The new code would also encourage mixed use and makes it easier to increase housing stock. Housing guidelines would be based on density rather than lot size, and permits would be valid for three years instead of just one.


    But the main goal is to open the lines of communication with developers. Conflicts arise, Dietrich said, when developers put a lot of money into a project only to find out what they are doing is banned in the land-use code. Developers would now be required to work closely with local officials early in a mandatory sketch plan phase.


    “We want to have a better dialogue up front, rather than a contentious dialogue at the end,” Dietrich said.


    About 25 people attended Tuesday’s meeting. Several raised questions about the new code, including Mark Wilson, president of the Lake Placid Shore Owners Association.


    “From our perspective, we have some issues we feel really need to be addressed,” he said.


    The group is extremely concerned about what they say is the code’s loosening of standards around the Paradox Bay area, Wilson said. Wilson also suggested that the committee use more specific language to avoid ambiguities, something Dietrich said the group is working on.


    “We really do want your comments,” Dietrich said.


    After all four public information meetings, the code will go to the town and village for approval and could be adopted by the end of the year.    

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