FAIRHOPE – A proposal to build a 39-room hotel at Fairhope Avenue and Bayfront Street will have to be changed to meet Fairhope Planning Commission concerns, members said.
Sena Inc. has proposed a plan to develop the property on the northeast corner of the intersection as a hotel. During a review of the plan Monday, Dec. 6, commission members said that while the site’s zoning would allow a hotel, the plan did not provide enough parking for the business.
Hunter Simmons, city planning director, said a 39-unit hotel would require 40 parking spots. He said the developer’s proposal was to have 20 parking spots and 10 bicycle spaces on the site with the other parking locations to be on the street.
“The applicant provided a map stating there are 44 on-street parking spaces within 300 feet of the subject property and would like to be attributed 50 percent of that number to accommodate 22 of those required parking space,” Simmons said.
He said city regulations allow public parking spaces to be considered in an application but does not require officials to include those spots.
“As staff looked at this, there's no way we would recommend and I think Richard Johnson, our public works director agreed as well, we would recommend allowing the on-street parking,” Simmons said. “This is parking near our parks at the top of the bluff. This is not the CBD. We would not recommend parking allowed like this for a hotel or any other use. That would need to be maintained onsite.”
“Public parking spaces are a significant expense, both in the land and the maintenance and we don't have any more around that area to offer. We can't create new ones,” he added later in the meeting.
Simmons said several residents had expressed concerns about the proposal and that some were present at the meeting. He said some had asked to speak, but since the commission was not yet considering the plan, no public hearing was scheduled.
Rebecca Bryant, commission chairwoman, said the property does not have enough room for parking for 39 units.
“Just looking at what we all just kind of looked at very quickly and even before we saw it, just doing some rough numbers with the size of that lot and the number of units, I struggle to see how 41 parking spaces could be accommodated in a way that meets the landscape ordinance, meets low-impact development requirements for parking lots, meets landscape buffers or even if the idea was to tuck them under the building, then gets the units in under the height ordinance, so I feel like the combination of our landscape ordinance, our parking requirements and the height restrictions, if you meet all those things I don't think that number of units will be possible,” Bryant said.
Simmons said the site also include trees that could not be removed for a commercial development without city approval.
“There are some heritage trees. It's a commercial project, so those are protected,” Simmons said. “Those would have to be reviewed and accommodated for. There's also on Fairhope Avenue a 20-foot landscape buffer required on certain streets within the city of Fairhope. That has not been provided for.”
Simmons said the site is zoned B-3b. The business zoning allows hotels. The designation, however, does not allow a bed and breakfast on the site.
“A bed and breakfast is actually not allowed,” Simmons said. “It's allowed in B-3a. I have had some questions about that, and it may be something we want to consider revising the zoning ordinance to allow that.”
City Councilman Corey Martin, council liaison to the Planning Commission, said he felt the developers should reconsider their plans for the property and develop a design that fits the historic region.
“I think Fairhope would like to preserve some of the historic value and the culture that we've presented around here over the years and this is not it,” Martin said. “I would suggest that those people go back to the drawing board. We'll work with them, but I don't think this is presentable as it is right now.”
