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Lake Placid council debates policy, process for vacating rights of way; Clark item tabled
Summary
Councilors and staff spent an extended session on how the town should handle requests to vacate rights of way, including who should process applications, what criteria to require, and whether council can condition approvals. A specific petition by Donald and Tina Clark was tabled to Oct. 20 at the applicants' request.
The Lake Placid Town Council devoted substantial discussion Sept. 15 to the towns policies and procedures for vacating rights of way, including who should process petitions, what documentation should be required, and whether the council may condition closures on property maintenance, stormwater or other off-site mitigation.
Staff said the issue has grown in recent years. Dana Riddell, town planner, told the council the town had received multiple right-of-way vacation requests in the last two years after a long period with few petitions. Riddell outlined differences in practice shes observed across jurisdictions: in some places attorneys handle vacations, in others engineering does, while the planner has been the intake in Lake Placid. She said her office currently checks for utility easements and potential nonconforming uses, and that her practice has been not to use broader property enforcement (such as open code cases) as a basis to deny a vacation unless there are specific, related public impacts.
Council members and other speakers pressed a range of points. Some members urged a case-by-case approach and preserved council discretion to require remediation or conditions (for example, addressing stormwater or code violations) before conveying land. Others said the process should be primarily procedural and administrative: applicants must submit title work, utility easement requests and a 30-year title search, staff circulates the package to departments, and the town attorney reviews legal issues. The town administrator said the intake function should be routed through the administrators office and distributed to departments for comment; finance and legal would then be part of the staff recommendation.
Members also discussed the form of action (county practice uses resolution; municipalities may use resolution or ordinance). Council guidance included a request that staff return with a clarified policy and a proposed administrative workflow. Council voted to table the specific Clark petition (ordinance 2025-06, vacation of alleyway requested by Donald and Tina Clark and Clark Self Storage LLC) to the council meeting of Oct. 20, per the applicants request because the parties were not present.
Speakers raised recurring concerns: the town should not give land away that it may later need for stormwater, easements requested by utilities must be preserved, title searches are necessary, and council must avoid informal bargaining where applicants are pressured to provide landscaping or other off-site improvements in exchange for approval. Several participants urged clearer, consistent written procedures so applicants are treated equitably; a town attorney present noted that council has discretion and that vacations should be evaluated case by case.
Council directed staff to draft a clearer procedure for intake, departmental review, and staff recommendation and to return with a proposal (including whether to use a resolution instead of an ordinance) for future council consideration.
