Title
Status Report on Design Review and Development Plan for an approximately 113,000-square-foot hotel with 172 guest rooms, and an approximately 7,000-square-foot restaurant with coffee shop at 2900Harbor Bay Parkway
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas, Acting Planning Building and Transportation Director
On December 11, 2018, the Planning Board unanimously approved the application to construct a five-story hotel and two-story restaurant with a café at 2900 Harbor Bay Parkway. The Planning Board approval included conditions that the final architectural design and landscape plan details return to the Planning Board for final approval prior to issuance of permits.
On February 5, 2019, the City Council upheld the Planning Board’s decision in response to an appeal filed by neighbors of the project and an interested labor union. In upholding the approval, the City Council directed staff and the Planning Board to also consider whether the building should be pushed back 10 to 15 feet further from the water’s edge. (The Planning Board’s December approval already requires a 75 foot setback from the water’s edge.)
On February 7, 2019, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission upheld the applicant’s position that the project was consistent with the BCDC Settlement Agreement, that the project does not need review by the BCDC Commission, and no further action or permit by BCDC is required on the project.
On Saturday, February 16, 2019, Planning Board president Sullivan, Planning Board member Saheba and planning staff hosted a community meeting in Harbor Bay to collect comments and suggestions from Harbor Bay neighbors on how the architectural design, landscape design, and setback of the building might be improved. The applicant and project architect attended the meeting, but they did not present their prior designs or any proposed revisions to their design. The purpose of the meeting was to receive comments and suggestions from the interested neighbors that could be used by the applicant in the redesign of the building architecture and landscape plan.
Since the February 16, 2019 meeting:
1) At staff’s request, the applicant placed stakes at the four corners of the proposed hotel on the site to help the neighbors visualize the relationship of the building to the water’s edge.
2) The applicant transmitted to staff a revised architectural elevations for the building. Staff did not feel that the revisions fully implemented the direction received on February 16th, so staff asked the applicant to continue revising the elevations.
3) The applicant has not provided revised landscape plans to date.
Once staff receives revised architectural drawings and landscape plans that, in staff’s opinion, represent a significant improvement over the prior plans, staff will make those plans available to the neighborhood for additional comment.
Once those plans have been improved to the satisfaction of staff in consultation with Planning Board members Sullivan and Saheba, staff will schedule and notice a public hearing before the Planning Board to consider the final setback of the building, the final architectural design of the building and the final landscape design for the project.
Until such time that staff is ready to schedule a final hearing, staff will continue to prepare brief project updates for the Planning Board and the public.