Exit 30 hotel parking meets the real world (pictures)

The below photos are an example of the parking disaster awaiting the Circles@30 area if Davidson approves more development next to the Community School of Davidson (CSD) without appropriate parking requirements. These were taken Thursday evening during the back to school Ice Cream Social.  Sent to aShortChronicle by a regular reader.

Facing Griffith, CSD on Left
Hotel will be in back center.

Harris Teeter side lot

Existing street parking
full

Facing up Davidson Gateway from Griffith
Street parking full.
Hotel on left, CSD on right

This situation may be inevitable to a large degree regardless of what is developed on this site, but Davidson Commissioners will make it much worse if they approve a hotel plan that is 36 spaces short of what is required and includes 30 on street spaces.

Exit 30 Hotel Parking: Make developer put money where mouth is...

Monday night, the town got its first taste of how the discussion might go with the proposed new Hyatt Place hotel next to CSD.  After picking apart the town staff analysis here where staff sugar coated the proposed 113 space parking plan, staff repeated Monday night the proposition that the proposed plan is comparable to what would be allowed in neighboring towns.  That was disappointing, but not surprising.

Regardless, of whether or not (and the answer is not) the proposed 113 spaces is close to what other jurisdictions might allow, two facts are undeniable.

Those facts are these.

1. 113 spaces is 36 spaces short of what Davidson's ordinance would require for a 74,500 sq ft commercial building.
2. This proposal is for a conditional planning area allowing Davidson to apply specific conditions for granting approval.

The 36 space shortfall is significant.  Not only does it represent a 25% variance from the ordinance, it is on top of the fact the 113 spaces included in the plan relies on 30 street parking spots and a shared agreement with neighboring Woodies.  Additionally, the 30 street spaces is more than the street spaces immediately adjacent to the proposed hotel site, meaning the hotel is requesting to use way more than its fare share of street parking in the Exit 30 area.

When one considers the reality of a school next door, maximizing the use of all parking in the area (on-street, off-street and shared) should be considered a top priority for Commissioners.

After Monday's meeting there were a couple of relevent Facebook comments on the Save Davidson page which speak to this.  One comes from someone who knows this part of town well, the other from someone with experience in protecting Davidson from the dais at Town Hall.

Nancy Palmisano who helps lead the Circles@30 Coalition said "it pained me to see the actions of the land owner/developer's physical and verbal responses to questions about CSD and land that surrounds it.  He had no knowledge of how many cars parked on the paved surface of his land.  Neither the board of commissioners or the land owner were aware of a land space in the back of the school that is used as the middle schoolers playground or that there is a small teachers' parking lot behind the school that is adjacent to a piece of land owned by Harris Teeter.

I realize that perhaps this project may still be in a fact finding stage, but I believe they all should have been more interested in these facts long ago...since the proposed hotel will become a "neighbor" of the school and parking, which is already a huge issue will become an even more intense issue for this area and the surrounding area be it a hotel or anything else.  

If the hotel has a parking lot, it will not allow parking for the school...it will be private use only.  If they put on-street parking, it will be no more efficient and actually very dangerous- just as the reverse parking area near the exit driveway of Gethsemane Baptist Church on Jetton Street is.  When those parking spaces are filled, one must take his or her life into their hands...to creep out into traffic...hoping the front of their car won't be ripped off by oncoming traffic.

I have alleged many times over that the powers that be do not have a good sense of this side of Davidson and that they approve development in this area without understanding some of the long term ramifications of their decisions/approvals inflicted on the citizens of 'this part of the community'. 

Additionally, thought it rather interesting how the conversation of inlaid crosswalks seemed so important to the "look" around the hotel area.  Would much, much rather attention be given to the serious issues at hand at the Circles @ 30 - not the fluff!

I could elaborate on these statements, but let it suffice to say...the cart should never go before the horse...now or ever when citizens lives are involved!  

There is a parking and traffic problem at the Circles@30...the powers that be in this matter need to acknowledge this and work together to not exacerbate the problem."

To that comment former Davidson Commissioner Sandy Carnegie replied "it should always be the Town's responsibility to look after the neighbors of a development. Developers are in the business of maximizing profit. I can remember being told by a few developers that Town decisions were costing them money. Making a little less money to comply with the ordinances and the Town's core values is not a bad thing. I cannot remember one single development where a developer volunteered to lose some money to benefit the surrounding properties. The protection of the neighbors comes from the Town placing those restrictions on the developer." (emphasis added)

Fortunately, the Town has options in this case because this hotel is proposed as a conditional planning amendment, and as the name implies the Town can put conditions on the developer to get approval.  So, in the spirit of that and with the staff analysis in hand here are some proposed additional conditions the developer should jump at if the developer is willing to stand behind its own numbers.

1. Make new hotel sign a parking sharing agreement with CSD where CSD can access the hotel off-street lot prior to 6pm.  After 6pm is the stated peak time for the Hotel.  During the day when school needs are highest there should be excess capacity in the hotel lot.
2. Make the Developer, who also operates Homewood Suites, allow their small side lot to be public parking.  This lot has about 21 spots.  The analysis presented by the developer says Homewood's parking is only 84% occupied on sold out nights.  An aerial of this site on Polaris shows 131 spots including this side lot.  Making this side lot public would provide a number of spots during the day for the area in general.  It would allow the Homewood suites hotel to still have 84% of its total available in its remaining parking.  Finally, those spots would be available at night for hotel guests if needed.  From observation, this week, it does appear Homewood uses this lot for staff and vehicle storage parking.  Those uses would need to be moved to Homewood's main lot.
3. Make the developer do a parking payment in lieu to be used somewhere in the Circles@30 area for any number of spots under the required 149 per ordinance.  That would be 13 spots with condition #2 or up to 36 spots without 

#1 should be a deal breaker for the town, non-negotiable.  If the developer is unwilling to agree to it and some combination of #2 and #3, then they aren't willing to stand behind their own analysis to a large degree.  More importantly, if the town staff and Town Board of Commissioners are not willing to impose these conditions, then they are simply not willing to do what is right for the Exit 30 area as a whole.

BREAKING NEWS: New Exit 30 Hotel plan, Planning Board on Monday

It has been almost a year and a half since aShortChronicle first broke the news of the proposal for a new hotel next to the Community School of Davidson.  Then last August the first version of the plan (which was not well received, btw) was delivered.

Now, it appears the project is ready to move forward. 

On Wednesday afternoon, an updated version of the proposal was posted on the Town website.  On July 31, 2017 (this coming Monday) the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners will hold a Joint Work Session with the project team.  This starts the end game for what could be another contentious vote for this Board prior to election day.

See here for the gory details of the new proposal.

Below are the highlights...

• The new proposal comes in at 4 stories rather than 6 in the original and includes 115 rooms.
• The parking situation has not improved from the original.  113 spaces are provided, but only 64 are on site.  It relies on less shared parking with Woodies next door, but at peak usage will need all available street parking in the vicinity.
• There is no mention of a rooftop restaurant in the new proposal.

Check back over the next few days for updates on this project and this Monday's meeting.  

#Catalyst2: Hotel info session didn't have all that much info available.

Two weeks ago, the developers behind the proposed Hyatt Place hotel next to CSD on Griffith street held an information session for locals to see what the project was all about.

The event was well attended, but it's unclear how much real "information" was conveyed.  There was no fact sheet handed out, only a few resolving slides on the projector.  Numerous drawings were haphazardly laid out on tables for people to review.  Sometimes it was difficult to know what each picture was trying to convey.

Some of the slides seemed to be subtly be saying "be careful what you wish for" when it comes to the alternatives if a hotel is not built.  Take  look at the below pictures.

Artistic Rendering of Hotel

Alternative

The first picture is an artistic rendering of the proposed 68 foot, 6 story hotel.  The second is the currently allowed pair of 3 story mixed use buildings.

Notice anything odd about these two pictures?

The three story buildings are the same height as the six story building.  Both buildings can't  possibly be the same height.  This is true even when acknowledging that from the angle in these pictures one might not be able to see the 6th story rooftop restaurant because it is set back a bit from the fifth story.  There didnt appear to be any pictures from any angle where you could actually see the 6th story.

This of course is misleading in multiple ways.  It is either not accurately depicting how tall the hotel will look from the road, OR it makes the alternative look worse than what it actually would, OR both.

Another omission on the hotel rendering side which was explained at the meeting (if you asked) is that the sidewalk along Griffith Street will be pushed back to make way for on street parking.  Additionally, the existing entrance onto the site closest to town will be closed forcing all drivers to use Gateway Drive.

Finally, the exterior design of the hotel doesn't seem to offer much.  It's reminiscent of the Linden Apartments around the corner which doesn't receive high marks as far as aesthetics goes.  Frankly, the proposed hotel design doesn't look any more intriguing than these other lower budget hotel lines.

It will be interesting what the town Design Review Board has to say if the project progresses that far.  Dave Malushizky with the local office of The Lawrence Group is the architect.

There was one interesting bit of info that came out during the meeting.  The project is now being required to complete a Traffic Impact Analysis.  With traffic and parking being major issues for this site, that will be revealing.

More on the TIA in the next post.  Stay tuned.

#Catslyst2: Exit 30 Hotel Development developments...

Ahead of the October 3rd public information session at Town Hall, the town took a few of the mandated steps on Thursday to start publicizing the Hyatt Place hotel project.

On the site along Griffith Street and across Davidson Gateway Dr from the Community School of Davidson the ubiquitous "Development Project" sign went up on Thursday.  Also on Thursday, Town staff confirmed for aShortChronicle that notification letters to nearby property owners also went in the mail today.  (They had to go out by Friday to meet the town’s ordinance requirements.)

By our count per the list provided by the Town, 29 residential recipients will receive the notice.  The were several other properties also listed including others owned by the owner of the hotel site and two owned by the Town itself.

Here are the town requirements for who receives notice.

A notice shall be sent by first class mail to adjacent and adjoining property plus property 
owners within 100 feet of any adjacent and adjoining parcels. Notice also shall be given 
to other affected parties as determined by the Planning Director. The applicant shall prepare the notice, which shall be approved by the Planning Director. The notices with addressed stamped envelopes shall be given to the Planning Director not less than fourteen (14) days prior to the public input session and mailed by the Planning Director not less than ten 10 days prior to the date of the public input session.

The bold line in the above is interesting.

From what can be determined by who is not on the list, the residents who live on the back of Spinnaker Cove are not receiving a notice, but those in the front are getting one.  The same can be said for the many of the residents in the West Side neighborhood.  Only a few are getting the notice while many are not.  None of the residents down Gateway at Jetton received the notice.

Per the town's planning ordinance notifying all these people could have been done if they were identified as "affected".  Apparently, they are not.

In addition to these notices the town put out its required press release Thursday.

Citizens are invited to a public input session, led by developer Beacon IMG, Inc., on the proposed conditional master plan amendment to change the permitted use from two mixed-use commercial/residential buildings to a hotel at the corner of Griffith Street and Davidson Gateway Drive. The site is located at 127 Davidson Gateway Drive, consists of 2.1 acres, and currently serves as a surface parking lot.

The public input session will be held on Monday, October 3 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Davidson Town Hall board room. It will be an open house format with no formal presentation. The hotel developer and project team, along with members of the Davidson Planning Department, will be present to discuss the proposed development and answer any questions. All citizens are invited to review the initial plans and provide comment.

Mark your calendars and plan to be there!

Catalyst's Revenge...Exit 30 Hotel

When the Catalyst Project broke into the forefront of conversation in Davidson back in 2015, the thing that made it explode into controversy was inclusion of a hotel in the plan.

That idea sank like a stone.

But as aShortChronicle pointed out a couple weeks ago, Catalyst supporters at Town Hall were likely to get a second bite at the hotel apple with the proposal for a Hyatt Place hotel next to the Community School of Davidson on Griffith Street.  See previous coverage of this bubbling story here, here, and here.

Well, after months of delay since the story first broke in February, the application for the project is finally up on the town website.

Hotel Site Border in Red

Here are a few of the lowlights which will likely raise similar concerns as those with the Catalyst Project.

Parking

According to the schematic in the application, there are only 118 parking spots for the project.  HOWEVER, only 70 are on the hotel site itself with 48 being made up of on street parking and shared parking with Woodies.  This includes new on street parking along Griffith Street.

Per information provided to the town on August 1st, the estimated number of rooms will be 110-115.  Oddly, this tidbit was not included in the application.

115 rooms and 118 parking spaces, much of it offsite.  Davidson must be getting the first completely robot staffed Hyatt Place because apparently there will be no staff needing to park as well.

It is impossible to see how this "plan" does not create a permanent parking nightmare in the area.

Traffic

Traffic! What traffic?!?!

According to the application, because the project is less than 75,000 square feet no traffic impact analysis is submitted.

This of course is completely ridiculous.  Due to the pre-existing school adjacent to the project, twice a day on every weekday during the school year, there is major traffic in the immediate vicinity.

Add to this the fact that by its very nature hotel guests will be unfamiliar with this daily traffic pattern and you have the makings of a very dangerous traffic situation every...single...schoolday.  This will be particularly true during morning rush when traffic is already a mess in that area.

Height

If approved, this building will dwarf anything in the area.  The project is pettitioning as part of the application to be allowed to build up to 68 feet in height.

This will make it significantly taller than the buildings around it.  According to information obtained as part of a public records request, these are the heights of other buildings nearby.

Two Harbor Place (Valspar) is 57 feet 
Woodies is 36 feet 
Homewood Suites is 59 feet

Oddly, the application specifies 4 floors, but the previous references to the number of floors say 5 (with a possible partial 6th) while also asking for the same 68 foot height.  More oddly, no renderings of what the building might look like have been posted to the town website.

All of these concerns should sound familiar to those who opposed the Catalyst Project.  For those reasons maybe this project should be called Catalyst 2.0.

Bonus Observation:  Per multiple Facebook postings, Mayor John Woods is apparently emailing citizens implying this is a done deal and that the town's hands are tied.  He probably thought the Catalyst Project was a done deal too.

Controversial Davidson Developments Part 2: Exit 30 Hotel

The previous column told you about Davidson Depot.  Now, it's on to the next bit of concrete and steel that could also be a real Town Hall barn burner of a project - a new Exit 30 Hotel.

aShortChronicle broke the story of this project back in February of this year.  See here and here.  Those stories revealed that a possible 120 room hotel was in the works.  A follow-up piece in June (see here) revealed it was likely to be a Hyatt Place developed by the same firm that did the Homewood Suites.

From that June article...

Nishith Patel whose firm, Beacon IMG, is mentioned in the documentation was also contacted.  Beacon IMG is a hotel development firm and is behind the Homewood Suites also at Exit 30. When asked if he had a comment for this story, Patel declined with the following statement. "Not at this time, we are still in the process of completing our application for the town."

Finally, Davidson Planning Director Jason Burdette said this about the project.  After qualifying that the town has a standard process for projects he said, "some of these projects continue, some do not. Those that do continue usually go through significant change before an application for development is officially submitted."In a followup question Burdette did say if this project goes forward this plan would be "conditional" - meaning the Town Board would have to approve it."

This week aShortChronicle was able to confirm some significant new details per a public records request and some follow up questions.

The new hotel will be a Hyatt Place as previously reported.  The current estimate for the number of rooms is 110-115

Per town Planning Director Jason Burdette on Thursday...

"The application came in late yesterday and should be on the web by the end of the week. As proposed, this project would be an amendment to a conditional master plan and will require approval by the Board of Commissioners." (Emphasis added.)

As of this writing on Saturday the plan is not up on the town website.  Readers should check here for it to show up any time now.

Burdette went on to say...

"I believe the last discussion we had with the developer suggested a proposed five-story hotel with a partial sixth story as a rooftop restaurant and outdoor dining space." (Emphasis added)

At 6 stories, this would likely be the tallest building in town sitting right next to the Community School of Davidson elementary/middle school on Griffith Street.

The requirement to get Board approval could be contentious.  When Woodies Auto next to this site was approved it resulted in a split 3-2 Board decision with current Commissioners Rodney Graham and Jim Fuller voting against it.  The scope and size of this project makes that one look like child's play.

To that end those lobbying for the project appear to be hard at work.  The public record shows extensive efforts to meet with Commissioners outside of the normal planning process.  There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it is an indication they are not certain the project has the votes.

Tentative schedule being discussed at town hall as of 8/4 (from public record request)

M 8/15: Application Submission to Town/EPM (Sketch Plan)
W 8/24: Notice to Adjacent Parcels due to Town (PIS)
F 8/26:Town Mails PIS Letters
W 9/7: Public Input Session (Alt. Dates:  Tr. 9/8, 9/12, 9/19-22
W 9/14: PIS Report due to Town
F 9/16: Notice to Adjacent Parcels due to Town (BOC Hearing)
Tu 9/20: PB-BOC Joint Work Session?
M 9/26: Revised Plans Due to Town/EPM (Master Plan)
T 9/27: Ad for BOC Hearing Due to Observer
F 9/30: Town Mails BOC Hearing Letters
Tu 10/11: BOC Hearing
M 10/3: Final Plans Due to Town
M 10/24: PB Hearing
Tu 11/8: BOC Decision
Nov-Dec: Additional EPM As Needed

The clock is already ticking for citizens to have their input heard.

If this project concerns residents, they should do the following:

1. Send an email to board@townofdavidson.org.

2. Get ready to pack Town Hall for the above events in red.  Make sure to check back here in case the dates change from this tentative schedule.

Controversial Davidson Developments Part 2: Exit 30 Hotel

The previous column told you about Davidson Depot.  Now, it's on to the next bit of concrete and steel that could also be a real Town Hall barn burner of a project - a new Exit 30 Hotel.

aShortChronicle broke the story of this project back in February of this year.  See here and here.  Those stories revealed that a possible 120 room hotel was in the works.  A follow-up piece in June (see here) revealed it was likely to be a Hyatt Place developed by the same firm that did the Homewood Suites.

From that June article...

Nishith Patel whose firm, Beacon IMG, is mentioned in the documentation was also contacted.  Beacon IMG is a hotel development firm and is behind the Homewood Suites also at Exit 30. When asked if he had a comment for this story, Patel declined with the following statement. "Not at this time, we are still in the process of completing our application for the town."

Finally, Davidson Planning Director Jason Burdette said this about the project.  After qualifying that the town has a standard process for projects he said, "some of these projects continue, some do not. Those that do continue usually go through significant change before an application for development is officially submitted."In a followup question Burdette did say if this project goes forward this plan would be "conditional" - meaning the Town Board would have to approve it."

This week aShortChronicle was able to confirm some significant new details per a public records request and some follow up questions.

The new hotel will be a Hyatt Place as previously reported.  The current estimate for the number of rooms is 110-115

Per town Planning Director Jason Burdet on Thursday...

"The application came in late yesterday and should be on the web by the end of the week. As proposed, this project would be an amendment to a conditional master plan and will require approval by the Board of Commissioners." (Emphasis added.)

As of this writing on Saturday the plan is not up on the town website.  Readers should check here for it to show up any time now.

Burdett went on to say...

"I believe the last discussion we had with the developer suggested a proposed five-story hotel with a partial sixth story as a rooftop restaurant and outdoor dining space." (Emphasis added)

At 6 stories, this would likely be the tallest building in town sitting right next to the Community School of Davidson elementary/middle school on Griffith Street.

The requirement to get Board approval could be contentious.  When Woodies Auto next to this site was approved it resulted in a split 3-2 Board decision with current Commissioners Rodney Graham and Jim Fuller voting against it.

To that end those lobbying for the project appear to be hard at work.  The public record shows extensive efforts to meet with Commissioners outside of the normal planning process.  There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it is an indication they are not certain the project has the votes.

Tentative schedule being discussed at town hall as of 8/4 (from public record request)

M 8/15: Application Submission to Town/EPM (Sketch Plan)
W 8/24: Notice to Adjacent Parcels due to Town (PIS)
F 8/26:Town Mails PIS Letters
W 9/7: Public Input Session (Alt. Dates:  Tr. 9/8, 9/12, 9/19-22
W 9/14: PIS Report due to Town
F 9/16: Notice to Adjacent Parcels due to Town (BOC Hearing)
Tu 9/20: PB-BOC Joint Work Session?
M 9/26: Revised Plans Due to Town/EPM (Master Plan)
T 9/27: Ad for BOC Hearing Due to Observer
F 9/30: Town Mails BOC Hearing Letters
Tu 10/11: BOC Hearing
M 10/3: Final Plans Due to Town
M 10/24: PB Hearing
Tu 11/8: BOC Decision
Nov-Dec: Additional EPM As Needed?

The clock is already ticking for citizens to have their input.

If this project concerns residents, they should do the following:

1. Send an email to board@townofdavidson.org.

2. Get ready to pack Town Hall for the above events in red.  Make sure to check back here in case the dates change from this tentative schedule.

Exit 30 Hotel Update

Back in February, aShortChronicle broke the story about a possible new hotel at Exit 30 on the land next to Woodies Auto and across from the Community School of Davidson.

In recent weeks rumors began swirling again about the project.  While an official development application has not been posted on the town website, more information has been discovered in recent days.

In documenation provided by the town, it shows as recently as early April, developers were "contemplating a Hyatt Place hotel with full service roof top restaurant; likely five stories."  There was some question about whether or not the rooftop restaurant effectively made the building 6 stories, but the answer to that is unclear.  What is clear is that the initially discussed height of the building was well over 60 feet which would make it the tallest building in the immediate area.

IF the project does turn out to be a Hyatt Place, here is what one can expect based on information from the Hyatt Place brand guidelines website description.

"Created for multi-blenders with 24/7 lifestyles seeking an upscale select-service hotel, Hyatt Place is a new generation of hotels offering casual hospitality in a smartly designed, high-tech and modern environment."

The site goes on to say the hotels are typically 125-200 rooms and six stories.

In attempting to confirm more details aShortChronicle recently reached out to the developer, the hotel partner, and the town.

Developer Martin Kerr, said when asked about the number of rooms that it "generally" stuck to the number in a February press release.  That number was 120.  If that's turns out to be true, that would put this hotel on the low end of the Hyatt Place range.

Nishith Patel whose firm, Beacon IMG, is mentioned in the documentation was also contacted.  Beacon IMG is a hotel development firm and is behind the Homewood Suites also at Exit 30.  When asked if he had a comment for this story, Patel declined with the following statement. "Not at this time, we are still in the process of completing our application for the town."

Finally, Davidson Planning Director Jason Burdette said this about the project.  After qualifying that the town has a standard process for projects he said, "some of these projects continue, some do not. Those that do continue usually go through significant change before an application for development is officially submitted."  In a followup question Burdette did say if this project goes forward this plan would be "conditional" - meaning the Town Board would have to approve it.

Keep your eyes on this one.  It is sure to get interesting.