Landowners' Lawyer Asks Review Board to Nix Hotel Work Session

A lawyer representing landowners in Old Town’s historic district sent a letter Friday to the city’s architectural review board asking for clarification of its to discuss a new waterfront hotel proposal.

Attorney Roy Shannon asked the historic district’s Board of Architectural Review to clarify what it plans to consider on July 25 since developer Carr Hospitality has withdrawn its application to on Union Street.

“Because of the departure from established process, confusion surrounds the new ‘work session’ process, and the great uncertainty regarding what exact ‘concepts’ the BAR is planning to do something with on July 25, we recommend that the BAR not hold this work session and consider the hotel proposal for 220 South Union Street until the proposal complies with the BAR’s processes,” writes Shannon with the firm Rich, Rosenthal, Brincefield, Manitta, Dzubin and Kroeger.

Shannon says he is concerned that the Carr application had referenced a proposed W-2 zone, a designation allowing buildings such as hotels to be build in a predetermined area. The waterfront is currently zoned W-1, which does not permit hotels.

These opponents of waterfront hotels say they are not asking for preservation of the current building at 220 s. Union, but “would like to preserve and enhance the landscapes, settings, neighborhoods, and places and features of historic significance.”

Shannon added that the city needs to make clear its process for evaluating the hotel proposal, which the developer has an option to purchase expiring at the end of 2012.

“While the director might not be concerned about the process in this instance, we are concerned about this process,” he writes. “There appears to be a different standard for the city when it chooses to use the protections afford by the rules and processes it established.”

Additionally, Shannon argues that after reviewing all BAR agendas for its public hearings noticed on the city’s website dating before 2000, “there was not one docket item or one instance when the BAR held an ‘informal work session,’ a ‘special work session,’ and ‘informational session,’ or just a plain old ‘work session.’"

The city's director of Planning and Zoning confirmed for Patch that Carr has officially withdrawn its application to build the hotel.