Brevard City Council approves preliminary plan for downtown hotel
The council is divided on the need to require changes to the plan, but approves it with a 5-0 vote.
By Dan DeWitt
Brevard NewsBeat
BREVARD — The Brevard City Council approved preliminary plans for a 120-room downtown hotel Wednesday after discussions about parking, building height, lighting and the maximum number of rooms allowed.
The vote was a major step in the developer’s effort to secure conditional zoning, which is necessary because the hotel’s footprint is far larger than the property’s current “downtown mixed-use” zoning allows.
The council began the discussion on Monday and continued it at noon on Wednesday after allowing remote input from the public.
Jeremy Owen, of Beverly-Hanks and Associates Realtors, represented the developer, Tye Warren, at the Wednesday meeting and requested the preliminary plan be accepted “as is.”
City Attorney Mike Pratt responded by telling the council that the meeting was its opportunity to discuss possible changes.
“I find Jeremy’s statement somewhat disconcerting,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like a cooperative developer to me.”
Council member Gary Daniel expressed concern that the submitted plan could allow Warren to provide 10 percent fewer parking spaces than rooms. That was especially concerning, he said, because the developer had also requested the right to build as many as 160 rooms. In previous discussions, council members had called the project an “80-room hotel,” and on Monday the project’s architect, Richard Ellison, had said the likely number of rooms is 120.
Daniel’s motion called for a cap of 140 rooms and a parking space for each room that is built. His motion also requested the developer attempt to adhere to “dark sky’ requirements that limit light pollution. The motion passed unanimously, though Council member Geraldine Dinkins did not attend because of a work conflict.
The council discussed, but did not change, the proposed height of the hotel building on the city-owned, 2.9 acre property, at N. Broad and E. Probart streets. Though this height is capped at 50 feet, the plan calls for the building to be measured from the highest point on Probart rather than the lowest point on the property, which is about 40 feet lower.
Pratt noted that one reason for the city cap on building height is fire safety and Daniel suggested that developer should build a lower section of the hotel on the lower part of the property.
“I don’t want to create a design,” Daniel said. “I’d rather express our concerns and have that noted and ask you not to have a 90-foot wall on the lower side.”
Mayor Pro Tem Mac Morrow responded by saying he didn’t want “hobble (the developer) in any way.”
The plans were submitted by a company called City Camper LLC. Warren, who has said he will be the hotel’s owner, previously directed the construction of a state lodge at Alabama’s Gulf State Park. The project has received certifications from environmental groups for its lighting, dune restoration and energy efficiency. In an earlier interview, Warren pledged that the Brevard hotel will fit in with the character of the city and that his aim is to build a project that is “quintessential Brevard.”
The submitted plans include one acre of publicly accessible park space, though a condition added Wednesday gives Warren the right to reduce this slightly if he needs to meet the new parking requirements. The agreement for the sale of the city-owned property, which is still pending, sets out other provisions, including that the hotel pay staffers at least $15 per hour, fund a downtown parking study and be incorporated in the Heart of Brevard taxing district.
“I really trust these guys, and if you look at these projects they have done, they have won awards for their sensitivity to the environment,” Morrow said. “They understand our sense of place and the authenticity of the city.”
But at Monday’s hearing, Dinkins warned against granting too much trust and urged the city to maintain control over the construction. Among the provisions she sought was an agreement between the city and hotel to fix two potholed, flood-prone roads on the perimeter of the hotel property.
Daniel said Monday the hotel would install curbs and gutters, and that state law requires developers to contain runoff.
The current condition of the hotel parcel is “pretty grim — broken pavement, impervious surfaces,” he said. “This (hotel) can’t be anything but an improvement.”
He also said the city could not force developers to take on what is the city’s responsibility — upgrading roads.
“That’s a problem, but it’s not their problem,” he said.
Council member Maureen Copelof, agreed and said on Wednesday that the city could take on this long-standing issue as the developer makes improvements to its side of the road.
“This is really an infrastructure issue that we need to make a priority in conjunction with the development,” she said.