About 100 people packed an Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission meeting Sept. 4 to oppose a proposed hotel behind the former UGA President’s House on Prince Avenue.
Opponents praised the plan for preserving the historic house and much of the grounds, but continued to criticize the 116-room, 88,000 square-foot hotel as too big, and raised concerns about noise bothering neighbors whose property abuts the five-acre lot, as well as traffic and the excavation for underground parking. “We wonder if a development of this size is appropriate for this site, and we worry it will set a precedent for over-scale development along the rest of Prince Avenue,” said Jason Taylor, president of the Boulevard Neighborhood Association.
Several planning commissioners agreed. “There is no way a waiver of more than eight times what would be allowed in C-N is gonna fly,” one said.
C-N is commercial-neighborhood, the zoning category developer Capstone Property Group of Gainesville is requesting. But C-N zoning caps commercial buildings, except medical offices, at 10,000 square feet, so the company is also seeking a waiver for the hotel.
“We contend that a high-end hotel is less impactful than other allowable uses within the C-N zoning, which staff has advised us they’d like to see this parcel zoned,” said architect Lori Bork Newcomer of the Athens design firm Arcollab. Without a waiver, someone could build apartments with 80 bedrooms or a 163,000 square-foot medical office covering 75% of the five-acre lot. “A hotel is a far better use of the property in its context than these other uses,” she said.
“I believe a private hotel of this scale is the only way, absent a very generous donor, to preserve and offer public access to the president’s house while saving the greenspace at the rear and providing a significant benefit for the Athens community as a whole,” said Capstone’s owner, Jeff Payne. Fewer rooms would require surface parking to work financially, Newcomer added.
ACC Planning Department staff support the rezoning but oppose the waiver for the hotel.
“Staff is not supportive of the scale of the proposed hotel use as proposed, but finds the hotel use to be compatible with the commercial corridor and adjacent neighborhood if the scale is reduced significantly,” according to a report to the planning commission. “This reduction could also reduce the amount of required parking and possibly reduce the amount of off-site parking needed. Lack of ample parking on site is likely to lead to greater neighborhood impacts with parking on those streets occurring in locations that are closer than the offsite location.”
Last week’s hearing was for discussion only; the planning commission did not vote on a recommendation to the ACC Commission, which will make the final decision no earlier than December.
The planning commission voted to table a proposal for apartments at the Homewood Hills shopping center off Jefferson Road, with the main concern being the lack of a binding site plan. The proposal by Austin Sumners and Atlanta development firm Carter is to demolish about a third of the shopping center toward the back of the property, and replace it with two five-story apartment buildings and eight townhouses. However, the project is somewhat hamstrung by ongoing leases with businesses. Neighbors also worried about the height of the buildings and the impact on traffic.
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