SARANAC LAKE -- A lively two-hour public hearing over a retail size cap ended with village trustees sending the draft law back to the drawing board.

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More than 60 people packed into the Harrietstown Town Hall to argue passionately for and against a retail size cap designed to keep box outlet stores out of the community.

A draft law would have limited shopping centers to 68,000 square feet and individual stores to 40,000 square feet.

Those numbers mirror a cap set a decade ago by the Town of North Elba after Wal-Mart tried to build a Lake Placid store in the mid-1990s.

But a provision that would also require stores larger than 20,000 square feet to prepare a "community/economic-impact statement" was not acceptable by a majority of trustees, effectively scuttling the law.

The mayor directed the economic-development director to redraft the law with a higher cap -- 90,000 square feet for shopping centers and 60,000 square feet for single stores; numbers that reflect the village planning board's recommendation in May.

Wal-Mart has been a divisive issue especially since 2006 when a 121,000-square-foot SuperCenter was proposed on Lake Flower Avenue. Following elections that saw a new mayor and two new trustees, the village halted the rezoning of a 10.8-acre parcel the retail giant needed to build its store. Wal-Mart pulled out soon after.

"I don't see any big box store beating our doors down to get here, which they should be," complained Saranac Lake resident Ruth Sofield. "Because there is nothing here to shop for. The (prices) are way too high and gas and people's home heating oil (costs) -- you can't afford to go anywhere."

But Wal-Mart supporters were in the minority Monday night with many appealing for a size cap that would keep box outlets away.

A number of surveys have supported "a reasonably sized cap," argued Mark Kurtz of the Sound Adirondack Growth Alliance -- a grassroots group formed to keep box stores out of the community.

Phil Gallos of Saranac Lake agreed.

"This is about retaining control of our destiny. We, as a community, must not turn control of how we may grow in an era of aggressive mega-retailers."

At one point during the hearing, Trustee Jeff Branch -- a longtime skeptic of retail size caps -- interrupted a speaker to say he is worried the community's zeal for keeping out Wal-Mart hurts the village's business climate.

"How many more storefronts have to go vacant until we decide, well, maybe we need something, maybe we need a store large enough to attract people from the outside area to come into our community?"