Village of Lake George considers parking lot to replace blighted land on South Canada Street (2024)

The Village of Lake George has considered the creation of a parking lot to replace the blighted piece of land on South Canada Street where a McDonald’s fast food restaurant was located about a decade ago. The project would be a partnership between the village and property owner, Mohammad Tariq.

The village board outlined several pros to the development of a parking lot including additional revenue for the village, an improvement to the South Canada streetscape, and to fulfill the need for downtown parking.

“If we can pull off some profit from parking and have more parking—that’s another kicker. 30 more spots in the village is big for us,” said Dan Barusch, Director of Planning and Zoning for Lake George.

“Right now that property is prime. It's sitting in this weird purgatory limbo, and it's great that we have a vision for it,” Board Trustee Jose Filomeno said.

The building on the property at 99 Canada St. had been a McDonald’s for decades but closed about 10 years ago. The building remained vacant for a couple years after that before being torn down.

A storm water sewer line runs underneath the property and had collapsed in 2022 or earlier. The collapse caused major flooding in the lower parking lot of the Howard Johnson’s hotel on the adjacent property to the south. The village and Tariq, the property owner of both properties, argued at the time over who was responsible for the repair. It fell on Tariq’s shoulders.

The conversations that led to the parking lot idea between Tariq and village officials date back months, but using the space to build a parking lot was one of the top priorities.

“I was thinking of using some occupancy tax money or even some money from our reserves to get it up and running potentially this year,” Lake George Mayor Ray Perry said. That process changed, however, after the mayor and Barusch spoke about tying this parking project in with the Downtown Revitalization Initiative to provide an enhancement to South Canada Street.

“We kind of pivoted a little bit. It might not happen for this summer, but it's what the DRI is for,” Perry added.

As previously reported, the town and village of Lake George received a $10 million DRI grant in late December 2023 that would fund a multitude of public and private development projects. One project the village hopes to get funding for is a South Canada streetscape that will enhance pedestrian sidewalks and amenities while beautifying the street and village gateway.

In exchange for the village assisting Tariq with the project’s pre-development and possible construction funding, the village proposed a 50-50 split of the profits from parking revenue, according to Barusch.

“If we do some of the legwork to get a parking lot designed, submit that project to DRI and get money from DRI to develop the parking lot—effectively our agreement with him would be for a higher cut, but we need a concept plan for the parking lot to get it into the package and be competitive enough,” Barusch explained.

A rough, conservative estimate based on a $2 per hour parking charge, would net between $60,000 and $80,000 annually in profit, Mayor Perry said.

However, since the parking lot would be considered prime downtown parking, the Village of Lake George could increase the price to $3 per hour, or a higher daily rate, which could lead to an annual revenue around $100,000, according to Perry.

The potential parking lot would be seen as more of a temporary solution for the land as Tariq may choose to eventually develop it into something else. The length of the deal between the two parties has yet to be determined, but could range from two to 10 years.

Ideally, the village would like a deal in place for closer to 10 years to maximize profits, but they also don’t want to get in the way of Tariq developing his property into something better, Perry said.

Therefore, the village could put a clause in the contract for them to be reimbursed in the event Tariq wants to develop the property within two to five years.

“If it ends up being shorter than the timeframe that we want, we would get some sort of reimbursem*nt for the costs that we put into it,” Barusch explained.

“It’s a good short term solution,” Board Trustee John Root said.

A deal for the project has yet to be finalized, but when it is, a concept plan for the project will then be drawn up and submitted into the DRI package for a South Canada St. enhancement.