Stewart’s is in the process of seeking approval from the Lake Placid-North Elba Review Board to demolish the Stewart’s convenience store and neighboring former Desperados restaurant on Saranac Avenue, construct a new gas station and a Stewart’s district office in their place, and build out a four-pump fueling area under a 122-foot-long LED gas canopy. To build the gas canopy, however, Stewart’s had to apply for an 86-foot variance from the village’s land use code, which places a 36-foot limit on gas canopy length.

The Lake Placid-North Elba Zoning Board of Appeals granted the variance at its meeting on Monday, Feb. 27. Four people on the ZBA’s five-person board were present at the meeting, and three of the four members present voted in favor of the variance request.

Before the board’s vote, ZBA members were required to hold a public hearing on the area variance request. No one commented on the area variance request directly. The only person to speak — Lee Slocum, a resident of Algonquin Drive — expressed concerns about the potential of increased traffic on Algonquin as a result of the Stewart’s remodel, which is proposed to have one entrance on Algonquin and one entrance on Saranac Avenue. That’s a change from two existing entrances on Saranac Avenue.

Board attorney Bill Kissel advised Slocum to submit her comments to the review board, which has jurisdiction over those details of the project. The zoning board could only consider comments about the gas canopy variance request.

The ZBA didn’t field any written comments on the variance request, according to Codes and Zoning Coordinator David Wright.

While the ZBA granted the gas canopy variance, the review board still needs to approve the Stewart’s Shop project proposal before demolition or construction of buildings could begin. The Stewart’s case went before the review board again on Wednesday, March 1. The review board is planning to forgo a public hearing for the case. The board set a date of Tuesday, March 7 to make a site visit.

Jonathan Gravatt was the only ZBA member to vote against the variance.

The zoning board of appeals considers both area and use variances from the town and village’s land use code. When it comes to considering an area variance — like the Stewart’s case — the zoning board’s job is to weigh the possible benefits and detriments of the variance if it were granted. If the majority of the board agrees that the variance would provide more benefits to the applicant than detriments to the community — which is based on a five-point checklist — the board can grant the minimum variance necessary for a project.

As the board considered its checklist on Feb. 27 — assessing whether the variance would negatively change the neighborhood or have negative effects on the area’s environment, if there were any alternatives to the variance, if the variance would be substantial and if the applicant’s difficulty was self-created — Gravatt identified the “massive” proposed increase in the size of the buildings and canopy as negatives for the neighborhood’s character and expressed dissatisfaction that Stewart’s Shops had presented a single plan for the gas canopy with no alternatives.

Board Chair Todd Rissberger, Vice Chair Gary Kaltenbach and board member Walter Goldschmidts voted in favor of the project, saying the proposed canopy design would be “neater and cleaner” than having multiple canopies to accommodate the four gas pumps in the proposed remodel. Board member Sean Donovan didn’t attend the meeting.