Oct. 11–The Frederick County Planning Commission has approved a new 84-room Holiday Inn Express and Suites just south of Frederick.
The five-story, 42,000-square-foot hotel would replace a motel that would be demolished on the 1.2-acre lot at 6021 Francis Scott Key Drive, which is near the Interstate 70 and Md. 85 interchange. The entire 3.03-acre site contains three one-level buildings, each with 34 rooms.
The applicant, Luthra Rupali & Havish Trustees, proposed 68 parking spaces for the lot, a modification from the 88 parking spaces currently required. The zoning ordinance requires the hotel to supply one parking spot per sleeping room and one for every two employees. More parking spots would be available at the other hotels on-site, totaling 164 spaces.
But commission members were not initially sold on the parking modifications.
"This shared parking with lot two seems to be a potential problem because, if you're going to the Holiday Inn, it's unlikely you're going to park at the Econolodge," Bob White, chairman of the Planning Commission, said about shared parking between the proposed hotel and the Econolodge next door. "How are you going to know that that's allowed parking and that you're not intruding on some other spaces? It's not going to be obvious to the patrons at the Holiday Inn."
Board member Joel Rensberger called the parking compromise "highly unsavory" and "unlikely to work."
White added that patrons won't come to check in to the hotel if they can't find a place to park their car.
Other commissioners had concerns about the loading space, which the applicant requested to move to the front of the building. The zoning ordinance, based on the building's square footage, requires three large loading spaces or two large and two small loading spaces.
If the loading space was moved to another spot of the building, more parking spaces could be compromised.
The applicant requested that a small loading space be under the hotel's drive-up canopy at the front entrance. The applicant explained that deliveries would come only between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon and they would receive only one to two deliveries per week.
"It's mainly for a temporary drop-off," Jody Walker, assistant project manager for Harris, Smariga and Associates, the engineering company for the project, told the board. "They're literally pulling up, running in, coming out and then leaving."
Carole Jaar Sepe, board vice chairwoman, recommended that the applicant and planning staff relocate the loading area as the building will have other exits and entrances. She made a motion to approve the site plan on conditions that vehicles will not be able to turn left onto Francis Scott Key Drive from a one-way access lane on the subdivision and a modification of the loading space.
The proposal passed 6-1 with Rensberger voting against it.
Follow CJ Fairfield on Twitter: @FairfieldCj.
