Decision On Proposed 47-Room Boutique Hotel Tabled In Doylestown

DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The Doylestown Borough Planning Commission on Tuesday tabled a vote on plans for a new boutique hotel, restaurant, and event space in downtown Doylestown until its October meeting.

The delayed vote will give the developer time to finalize a parking management and operations plan for the project, submit a comprehensive signage package, and to secure input from HARB for a proposed covered walkway from the parking area to the hotel.

The commission is expecting to vote at its next meeting on a recommendation to approve or deny preliminary as final plans for the hotel project.

On Tuesday, land development attorney Kelly McGowan updated the commission on the project, detailing a parking management plan for the hotel, slated to be built at the site of the former borough hall at 57 West Court Street.

The plan is proposing 47 rooms, up from the original 32 rooms; a 100-seat event venue, reduced through a court-stipulated agreement from 200; and a 70-seat restaurant that has not changed in size. from the original proposal.

Parking and traffic continued to dominate the discussion Tuesday night with MGowan detailing a parking management plan for the hotel.

McGowan told the planners that the proposed hotel’s parking area would operate as a private lot and would be managed 24/7 by a valet company that would be hired by the hotel.

“It’s a 24-7 controlled lot. It will be manned at all times. You will not be able to move your cars around independently,” said McGowan. “The use is reservation-driven,” meaning that parking arrangements are made through hotel, special event, and restaurant reservations.

McGowan said they have already had preliminary discussions with an outside valet service used to operating in tight parking situations in New Hope Borough.

Another view of the proposed hotel.

When asked by planning chair James Lannon how they would prevent stacking onto North Franklin Street, McGowan said the valet operator will be managing the lot to prevent that from happening.

“The valet operator advises that on a typical day - on a non-event day - the parking lot will be staffed by one or two attendants. In their experience, one is sufficient," said McGowan. "During events, they have up to four. We’re going to have a movable valet staff so in times of higher volume, they will move their station to increase the length of cars.”

As part of the management plan, McGowan said a comprehensive signage package is being developed to alert the public to the location and openness of the hotel’s parking lot “so you know when you make that turn onto Hamilton what you’re going to find when you get there.”

Also at the meeting, McGowen briefed the planners on a handful of revisions to the plan, an updated lighting plan, additional balcony screening in the form of trellises, enhanced pedestrian access to the rear of the hotel from the parking lot, and increasing the height of a fence on the property line to eight feet high to screen the property from neighbors.

A proposed concrete traffic “bump out” has also been enlarged to force traffic exiting the hotel’s parking lot to make a left onto North Hamilton Street. Stormwater management systems have also been enhanced to handle water runoff at North Hamilton Street, said McGowan.

The hotel will be built on the site of the former borough hall, which was torn down earlier this year to make way for the new use. The building had served as the borough hall and police station for decades.

McGowan told the planners last month that many of the outstanding issues are “will comply,” meaning the developer has agreed to the recommendations of the borough’s professionals and its boards and commissions, which have jurisdiction over land development plans.

Much of the discussion during the August meeting centered on parking, site flow, and ingress and egress to the site.

New plans for the site call for just one entrance and exit to its parking lot, which would be off of North Hamilton. Exiting traffic from the site would be limited to a left turn back to Court Street via Hamilton.

The plan also calls for the current driveway between Villa Capri and the hotel site to be replaced by a sidewalk. The building will also extend a little wider, said the developer’s professionals. Also eliminated would be the Harvey Avenue entrance to the parking lot to deter traffic from exiting onto the residential one-way street and to make it easier to manage the lot.

The parking lot behind the building is proposed to include 76 spaces, which meets the zoning requirements for the hotel. Thirty-five of the spaces would be located on the ground floor of the hotel, where 11 parking lifts will be used to increase parking counts.