Davidson Board To Take Up Controversial Hotel Issue Tuesday

DAVIDSON, NC -- Davidson’s Board of Commissioners will meet Tuesday night to discuss a range of issues, including considering approval of an ordinance that would green light a controversial hotel development project on Griffith Street.

The new ordinance under consideration, which the town’s staff recommend approval of in a Tuesday memo, would allow construction of the nearly 75,000-square-foot four-story hotel, as well as retail space on a 2-acre parcel of land on the corner of Griffith Street and Davidson Gateway Drive. The Board of Commissioners will meet Nov. 14 in the Town Hall Board Room at 6 p.m. The agenda for the meeting may be found here.

The site, however, is directly across the street from the lower grade building of the Community School of Davidson and has stirred community concerns about increases in traffic on already congested roads, the scarcity of public parking and general safety issues given the proposed hotel's proximity to young children.

Hotel developer Nish Patel has made recent revisions to the proposed project, Davidson Planning Director Jason Burdette said in a Nov. 14 memo to the Board of Commissioners recommending approval of the plan.

“As noted earlier in the staff analysis, the proposed use, building type, and site design standards are generally consistent with the Circles @ 30 area,” Burdette said.

“Through conditional agreements the proposal pledges to: Ensure an active primary or secondary retail use on the site’s NW corner; address light pollution; provide substantial vegetative screening along the eastern boundary; construct transit stops and bicycle parking/sharing facilities, along with a multi-use path on Griffith Street; pay half the cost of a multi-use path bridge connecting to Roosevelt Wilson Park; reserve space for public art; provide enhanced plaza design approved by the Design Review Board; pay for the cost of a mid-block crossing on Griffith St. and construct two crosswalks on Davidson Gateway Drive; and, schedule off-site construction activities to mitigate impacts to adjacent uses.”

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Image courtesy of the Town of Davidson