SARANAC LAKE - The Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is backing out of its plan to lease the Main Street parking lot next to Sears, a move that may trigger the closure of the busy downtown lot to public parking in a matter of days.
In a surprising reverse of course, the chamber's Board of Directors voted unanimously Monday morning to no longer pursue a contract with Sears owners Phil Vivlamore and Larry Mullen. The chamber had planned to lease the lot for about $2,000 a month and charge parking fees to pay for the expense.
Keith Wells, president of the chamber's board, said the downtown chamber members who initially supported the idea changed their position based on comments from their customers, letters to the editor of the Enterprise and other feedback.
"They were concerned that their business would be hurt if people had to pay for parking and decided they wouldn't park in the lot," Wells said. "They were concerned that people would maybe not park downtown at all, and maybe drive around and go someplace else. That was our concern. The board didn't have the confidence to move forward with it."
Legal issues surrounding the chamber's plan to sublease the lot to the village for parking enforcement and maintenance also played a role in the decision, according to chamber director Sylvie Nelson.
"Our lawyer thought it was a very complicated agreement," she said. "That was another challenge."
The decision also means the chamber will no longer pursue a $20,000 loan from the village to purchase parking kiosks. A resolution to approve that agreement was removed from the agenda at Monday night's village board meeting.
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End to public parking?
Now that the deal with the chamber is off, Vivlamore said they plan to blockade the parking lot's two back entrances on Thursday morning. Only customers of the businesses in their building will be allowed to park there.
"Those two (entrances) will officially, absolutely, 100 percent be shut down on Thursday," Vivlamore told the Enterprise. "It will become private parking for Sears, Nori's Village Market, Edward Jones and the art studio we have in our building only. Anybody parking in those places to go anywhere else will be towed."
Vivlamore said the main entrance to the parking lot will be gated by the following Thursday, July 8.
"Thursday of next week it will be absolutely, 100 percent private parking," he said.
Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau Rabideau said closing the parking lot could have negative implications for Sears.
"If they decide to close the parking lot, they do so at their own risk or peril," Rabideau said. "If they were to close the parking lot, they would engender a tremendously negative reaction from the community that would have an adverse impact upon their business."
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Different stories
Vivlamore painted a different picture of what caused the chamber to back out of the deal. He said Rabideau reneged on the village's promise to sublease the lot from the chamber, part of a memorandum of understanding between those two entities.
"Our lawyers got together, we had a lease ready to go, they presented it to Clyde, and Clyde backed out of the deal," Vivlamore said.
Rabideau called that "a lie."
"I didn't back out of anything," he said. "I stood behind that MOU 100 percent. I'd encourage him to get his facts straight before making those kinds of statements."
Nelson also cast doubt on Vivlamore's assertion, saying Rabideau had supported the terms of the MOU.
"What Clyde said is they would honor the MOU, and the contract was based on that," she said.
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The root of the problem
The chamber had stepped in to try to resolve an impasse between the village and the Sears owners. For decades, the village had leased the parking lot, maintained it and used it for free public parking.
Vivlamore and Mullen, who bought the lot and the Sears building in August 2009, wanted to sell it to the village, and the village wanted to buy it, but the two sides couldn't agree on a price or a new lease. For the last 10 years, the village leased it for $150, plus percentage increases based on property values, but the Sears owners wanted about $2,000 a month. For purchase, the Sears owners wanted $265,000, but the village stuck at $200,000.
The chamber offered to lease the lot just before the village's most recent lease expired June 1. On May 28, the village Board of Trustees approved the MOU with the chamber to continue maintaining the lot and enforcing parking regulations in it, plus the $20,000 loan.
Parking continued to be free while the chamber worked out a contract with the Sears owners.
Meanwhile, as the chamber was planning to charge for parking in the lot, some business owners suggested the village should install parking meters in part of downtown. The board began looking into paid downtown parking but backed away from that plan last week after an outcry from local residents.
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No deal likely
Both Nelson and Wells said Monday that they hope the village and the Sears owners can sit down and talk, although the chances of the two sides reaching any kind of agreement soon seem unlikely.
"They need to sit down and say, 'How can we sort this out so it's an open parking lot?'" Wells said. "This may have been a catalyst to unfreeze the positions that were there a month ago."
"That parking lot is a crucial part of our economic well-being, specifically for our downtown core," Nelson said.
Vivlamore said a dialogue with the village is not possible "with Clyde at the helm."
"We didn't want to do this, but we don't have the money to keep that parking lot open," he said. "My heart bleeds for every single business person that's on that street, for all the people who come in for tourism and especially for the (Seventh-Day Adventist) church because it will now have no parking. It's a bad situation all the way around."
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Contact Chris Knight at 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.