Francis city officials want to edit their code after two newly approved hotels sparked community protest and a lawsuit.
That includes effectively banning hotels in town.
Hotels are allowed in the commercial and city center zones where they were recently approved, as long as their negative effects are mitigated.
Under the draft code changes, they would no longer be allowed at all. The two hotels approved along state Route 32 this year would be grandfathered in.
One of those, a Best Western Plus, is being appealed by residents in 3rd District Court.
Other changes include taking the city council out of the conditional use permit process.
The hotels had to have public hearings at both the planning commission and council before a final vote on their permits, and some of those meetings topped 5 hours long.
The city is proposing only holding public hearings, and a final vote, at the planning commission level.
That’s a common practice elsewhere in Summit County since conditional use permits are administrative, as opposed to legislative. That means those permits generally get approved if the applicant complies with code.
The code changes also include changes to short-term rental (STR) policies.
STRs wouldn’t go through the conditional use permit process anymore; they’d have their own special permit that staff alone review.
The number of STR permits would be capped at 3% of the number of rooftops in Francis. According to the staff report, that would allow 18 nightly rentals based on the town’s current size.
The June 5 hearing where the public can weigh in on the changes starts at 6 p.m. at Francis City Hall.
