Boone residents

oppose hotel plans
By Frank Ruggiero

Area residents checked in to a Boone public hearing, opposing plans for a four-story hotel near their neighborhood.

The town’s quarterly public hearing Nov. 13 saw a request from Boone Five LLC to rezone property on N.C. 105 across from the Hampton Inn, with plans to build a four-story, 100-unit Marriott Courtyard hotel.

The request would see the property changed from split B-3 (general business) and R-1 (single-family residential) to CDB-3 (conditional district general business).

Earlier this year, the Boone Town Council had allocated approximately 8,000 gallons per day of water for the project, and the residents of neighboring Wintergreen Lane had reached an amicable agreement with the developers concerning the hotel, when plans called for a three-story, 90-room hotel.

The plans have since changed, and Damon Mallatere, partner with Boone Hotel Five (owners of the recently opened La Quinta and Sleep Inn, among others), appeared to speak on the matter.

Previous plans, which included underground parking, proved cost-prohibitive and would have called for grading closer to the neighborhood, he said.

The current four-story design would accommodate a significant buffer between the hotel and the closest house. “All the plantings we’ve done up there only really benefit Wintergreen Lane,” he said.

Bunk Spann, chairman of the Boone Area Planning Commission, cited neighbors’ written concerns about privacy, specifically hotel customers being able to see into residencies and vice versa, and visual impact.

Mallatere said his company had to consider the matter from an economic perspective, as well.

With the project already costing $14 million, compared to the original $1.2 million, he said Boone Hotel Five has “done everything we can with the large buffer on the top, the dense vegetation, way more planting than what’s required,” as well as a sizable retaining wall to minimize grading.

Marriott Courtyards offer full service, including a restaurant and bar for patrons, but Mallatere said the facilities typically only serve guests.

Further, were the hotel not to have 100 rooms, he said, the project simply wouldn’t be affordable.

Mallatere then turned the microphone over to architect Bill Dixon, who said, “I think … protecting the R-1 neighborhood is a big issue for everyone.”

He said Boone Hotel Five has gone to great lengths to protect the Wintergreen neighborhood by way of increased plantings, including larger trees, as well as minor considerations, like limiting trash pickup to daytime hours and smart lighting plans for the parking lot to curb light pollution.

Regarding the fourth story, to which the residents objected, Dixon revealed redesigned plans with a flat roof, as opposed to the previously designed pitched roof.

This would drop about 10 feet in vertical height, he said, actually bringing the hotel to the height of the three-story model.

Dixon said his clients were requested to create a 34-foot berm to buffer what’s termed as an “unsightly gap” on one of Wintergreen’s sharp curves, facing two houses owned by resident Lynn White.

The property’s previous owners cut the gap without authorization to provide construction site access.

A 34-foot retaining wall, however, to thoroughly close the gap would prove larger than that behind Staples, and Dixon called it “just not realistic.”

“We do not want this item tabled,” Mallatere told members of the Boone Town Council and planning commission. “We can’t stand another year of maybes… Yay or nay. If it’s nay, we’ll move on, but we have to have a decision. We’re not going to continue to spend money on a plan that may never happen.”

He then referred to a list of conditions presented by White, saying the hotel height would remain as is and complete closure of the gap would not be possible, though he did assure residents that no further trees would be cut in the already established wooded area, no further grading would occur in that area, a 10-foot cedar hedge would be planted beyond the wooded area (pending town approval), and all dead trees and brush would be removed from said area.

Mallatere would not concede to place parking underground, and he said no intense lighting would be placed behind the hotel or directed toward the neighborhood. While residents would likely be able to see the hotel during wintertime, he said they already see a hotel by way of the Hampton Inn across N.C. 105.

He asked council and commission members to consider the alternatives. If a hotel did not go on the property, other uses could, such as fast food restaurants.

White, who has lived on Wintergreen Lane for 36 years, took the podium next, saying her fellow neighbors are very concerned with the rezoning request.

“It’ll be situated on the current R-1 acreage,” she said. “It’ll definitely be in an R-1 neighborhood. Any final decision here regarding this proposal will not only affect the current residents, but their heirs, and it’ll set a precedent in what’s going to happen in Boone’s historic neighborhoods.”

White reminded the boards about the property owners’, Catacorner Investments, attempt in 2005 to rezone the R-1 portion to B-3, which was denied by the council after neighborhood opposition.

In 2005, she purchased the house next door to hers, attempting to preserve neighborhood aesthetics.

Following the events of 2005, numerous meetings took place between neighbors and Boone Hotel Five representatives, including hotelier Ashok Patel, then representing Jamus FLP No. 3, and Mallatere.

White said they’d reached an amicable agreement for a three-story hotel, which she thought still stood as is, up until this October, when she and her neighbors received notice from Boone Development Services about the public hearing.

The current plan, White continued, would enlarge the gap facing her properties.

“The proposed planting of bushes and trees in this area will do almost nothing to suppress noise intrusion and will do very little to create a visual buffer, even less in the winter,” she said.

“A large portion of the hotel, along with its lights and parking, will be in plain view… Hotel patrons would be able to look directly into the homes of the Wintergreen Lane residents.”

She said it is reasonable that only a three-story hotel be built in the neighborhood, as the current plan encroaches upon the residential area.

Resident Susan Owen-Coffey, who has lived on Wintergreen Lane for 24 years, said she would like to see a win-win situation and expressed gratitude for the group’s alteration of plans, in changing the roof to a flat model, which imposes considerably less on her viewscape. She also agreed that a hotel is a more friendly use of the property, as opposed to a restaurant, but said, “We will not tolerate any sort of light pollution with this project.”

White’s son, Allan, also spoke on behalf of the neighborhood, calling Boone Hotel Five’s plan “completely unfair to the neighborhood,” in that the group should fully restore the gap on Wintergreen to its previous elevation.

“It’s not putting a buffer; it’s restoring a buffer that was destroyed,” he said. “Current proposals should be turned down, and we should reconsider some of these buffers and hotel heights.”

He added that retaining walls should be built to accommodate an adequate buffer, which could be done at a cost miniscule to that of the entire project. “It seems the solution, and it’s financially feasible – apparently, up till three months ago, it was,” he said.

Jeff Collins, partner with Catacorner Investments and co-owner of Peabody’s Wine & Beer Merchants, said the matter seems to boil down to the hotel’s proposed height.

“It seems from (residents’) comments they’re A-OK with three stories, but petrified of a four-story,” he said, “and I think if you look at the renderings, which are to scale, the four-story hotel is no higher than the three-story hotel. It’s also significantly farther away.”

Collins referred to Allan White’s suggestion about modifying the retaining wall to buffer the gap, saying it simply cannot be done if plants are to grow there.

Significantly sized trees would not have adequate room atop the wall to grow, he said, and existing trees would have to be cut down to make room for the wall, though the gap would be restored as best as possible.

Concerning views from the homes, Collins said White’s properties would face trees across the street, though he added that the properties’ northern views are of McDonald’s, the Red Carpet Inn and BB&T bank.

“They’re in a commercial area by nature of being in town,” he said.

Collins’ business partner, Greg Parsons, spoke next, saying there’s been plenty of talk about commercial use eating into residential use, but said, in this instance, it’s vice versa.

“It’s really residential encroaching into a commercial area,” he said.

The Boone Town Council is expected to act on the matter at its regular meeting Thursday, Nov. 20, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in council chambers, located at 1500 Blowing Rock Road.