Members of the community review a draft of the North Elba showgrounds and athletic fields master plan, developed in partnership with SE Group, at an open house at Lake Placid Elementary School on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

LAKE PLACID — Plans for new buildings, renovations and improvements at the North Elba Horse Showgrounds were unveiled at a public open house Thursday. Feedback from the open house will be incorporated into a final draft of a plan that will then be handed over to the North Elba Town Council.

The showgrounds are owned by the town but are used mainly by the Lake Placid Horse Show Association for its two horse shows, the Lake Placid Horse Show and the I Love New York Horse Show, which run during the summer for six days each. The grounds are adjacent to the Lake Placid High School athletic fields and bisected by the Lake Placid Airport.

On Tuesday, Town Supervisor Derek Doty said the town will soon begin researching funding for a renovation and expansion of the Long Building, the large building between the horse show rings. Doty hopes this will build momentum towards the other projects that the master plan includes.

The renovations of the Long Building include a new kitchen, an expanded Hall of Fame and an expanded two-story section of the building overlooking both sides of the show rings for announcers and VIPs, according to Doty.

The new building will be climate-controlled and suitable for use year-round use, including summer youth programs that already happen there, Doty said. It could also serve as an area for other gatherings, such as events for seniors, and as a venue to help support the state Olympic Regional Development Authority during big events and competitions.

“You know the old saying, ‘Build it and they will come’?” Doty said. “We are convinced that once that building starts this whole master plan idea, then other facets will fall in shortly behind.”

–

Showgrounds master plan and process

–

The town of North Elba has been working with SE Group, a Vermont-based landscape architecture and planning consultant firm, to develop this master plan alongside the Lake Placid comprehensive plan. SE group gathered public input for both plans simultaneously, but the projects are essentially separate at this point, North Elba Director of Community Development Haley Breen said.

The project is also separate from the Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant that Lake Placid applied for in October, as the showgrounds lie outside the downtown area included in the DRI.

SE Group started gathering data in the spring of 2024, meeting with community stakeholders and issuing a survey to the general public. They received 706 responses, according to information presented at Thursday’s open house. Of the responses received, 41% were from North Elba residents, and 32% were Lake Placid residents. Of the rest of the respondents, 19% live elsewhere in the Adirondack Park, and 9% live outside the Adirondack Park.

Around 60% of respondents reported using the showgrounds to either attend sporting events or community events, half said they go there to admire the scenery and 30% said they go there to use trails or walk their dogs.

The top “desired amenities” among residents were bathroom facilities, a new or improved dog park, improvements to trails, restoration of the Olympic Cauldron, year round use of facilities and new indoor facilities.

–

Suggested projects

–

In addition to the Long Building, there were a number of other new buildings proposed in the plan. This includes a suggestion of open-air buildings to replace the rental tents utilized each year by the Lake Placid Horse Show Association.

For the athletic fields area, the plan proposes a picnic pavilion with restrooms and a multi-purpose event or community building that could be used for things like meetings and weddings. The plan also proposes an indoor sports building for soccer and lacrosse, as well as larger events like fairs.

The town already received an Adirondack Smart Growth grant that will be used to install a pump track near the athletic fields. Other changes proposed in the plan include improvements to trails, landscaping improvements, added signage, improved vehicle circulation and improved accessibility for paths and buildings. The plan is also to create an interpretive promenade for the Olympic Cauldron.

–

Public feedback

–

At the open house Thursday, members of the public were invited to give written feedback or to share their priorities by sticking dots onto a board with some of the major projects laid out. Towards the end of the night, many of the projects had garnered strong support. These included rebuilding the Long Building, restoring the Olympic Cauldron, the picnic area and the community/event building. Support was also strong for aesthetic improvements to the area.

There is still an opportunity for the public to provide feedback as SE group works on finalizing a plan that will be handed over for the town to vote on and eventually implement. It will take years to complete the whole plan, but it’s an important investment in the town, Doty said.

“We recognize that in order to sustain the area with economic impact, we need to be as efficient as we can with all of our park district grounds,” he said.

To see more about the showgrounds master plan, visit placidpathways.org. There is also a space to provide feedback on the plan, which will be open until Jan. 30, according to Breen.