Homeowners in the Village at Lambert Lane have appealed Francis City’s decision to greenlight a Best Western.
The 15-home neighborhood is directly behind where the hotel will go on the northwest corner of state Route 32 and Lambert Lane.
The residents are appealing because they say the hotel will disturb them and nearby wetlands.
City code states “facilities that require late-night customers and activities shall be located away from residential areas to reasonably prevent disruption of privacy.”
Village at Lambert Lane, which is adjacent to the hotel property, says the council should have denied Best Western for not being “away from” the neighborhood.
Before the council approved the hotel last month, Francis’ attorney said “away from” was unenforceable because it wasn’t objectively measurable. Councilmembers still required a 50-foot buffer between the hotel and the residential property line.
Residents want 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik to overturn the Best Western's 4-1 approval.
They also raise concerns that development will disturb the wetlands that cross both the hotelier’s property and their own.
In a promotional video for the commercial center, developer Wes Harwood said he’s worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to follow wetlands regulations.
The residents’ appeal asks the court to consider not federal law but city code, which prohibits disturbing “significant wetlands.”
Francis City has yet to file a reply in 3rd District Court, and a hearing hasn’t been scheduled.
The Best Western is one of two hotels residents have recently protested.
The city council approved the other hotel, which will be at the center of town, on April 10. But developer Rusty Webster will need to redesign it.
The unnamed hotel got its permit 4-1. The council denied its architectural plans 3-2.
City Planner Katie Henneuse said that’s partly because the council didn’t think the plans complied with the three-story limit in the city center zone.
“The applicant claimed the previously planned fourth story would become an attic and it would be done in accordance with building codes, but the updated plans submitted showed balconies on the attic/fourth story and the interior plans showed walls and doors,” she wrote in an email to KPCW.
Webster had asked for a code change allowing four stories, but the city denied it.
