Hotel Plans Spark Hatfield & McCoys Scene

The 90-minute episode that played out Thursday night before the Zoning Hearing Board might have been aptly titled “Hotel Wars.”

On the board agenda was a proposal for a four-story, 80-room hotel on 2 acres at Lincoln Highway (Route 1) and Old Street Road. The application filed by Harry Patel, owner and operator of the nearby Inn of the Dove, requires approval of many variances.

Project attorney Tom Hecker previously told Patch that a neighboring property owner had some concerns. And Amee Farrell introduced herself to the board early on during Thursday's hearing as the attorney representing Bensalem Realty Enterprises, the property owner directly east of the parcel where the hotel is planned.

But it was some time before it became clear that her client also has been planning a hotel. That plan got its zoning board approval about three years ago but ground has never been broken.

Among the variances being sought for Patel's project are those for an undersized lot, undersized setback, undersized buffer area, parking in a residential zone and exceeding impervious coverage.

Farrell in cross-examining project engineer Mark Havers asked many times if the developer had looked into a different use for the land that wouldn't require so many variances. Farrell also said township ordinance calls for all parking on the same lot as the hotel, not on the small separate lot at the southern end of the development plan. She suggested that Patel could fit all the parking on the main parcel if he were planning a smaller hotel, and Havers said that might be the case.

However, Havers said it is Patel's intent to seek permission later from the township to merge the smaller lot – 8,600 square feet of residentially zoned land purchased from the township – with the larger one. Hecker said his client must seek zoning board relief before such a consolidation, and board attorney Ray McHugh said that is the usual sequence of events.

Hecker also referred to his client's acquiescence to the neighbor's desire that a certain hotel chain not be sited on Patel's property.

But it wasn't until Patel testified that it became crystal clear that both property owners have the same goal for their respective lots: building a hotel.

When challenged on the lack of a loading zone on his plan, Patel said his neighbor is planning a larger hotel and it doesn't include a loading zone.

Patel said he took over the Inn of the Dove in 2008 and turned it from a “down hotel” to the top hotel in the area. He said he is planning a Hampton hotel that would transform Lincoln Highway, which he called a “scar” on Bensalem.

“I was talking to casino guys today and it's tremendously needed,” he added of his prospective hotel.

The lack of a loading zone – even though Patel does not plan a hotel restaurant and he would do his linen work in-house – was a sticking point for some board members. So, too, was the lack of elevations on the plan and some confusion over just how many variances are needed.

Board member Joanne Redding called the proposal “a pretty good use for the parcel. But I do concur that you want a loading zone and 20-foot buffers between (the parking area and) homes.”

“It's been around a long time and no one's done anything with it, and it hurts the township” she added of the vacant property, which was once the site of the Golden Horse Inn and San Remo restaurant and more recently a car lot.

“But this plan needs cleaning up.”

In the end, the board and applicant agreed to continue the hearing until May 5.

After the hearing, Farrell disagreed with the characterization of two property owners fighting over who can open their hotel first.

“Our concern here is the scope of relief needed for a very small lot,” she said.

Hecker said the belief is that two new hotels could survive on the abutting properties. He said he believes the property owner objecting to his client's plan may be having trouble getting financing for his hotel.

“My guy doesn't have that problem,” he said.

On Friday, Farrell provided the original Feb. 2008 zoning board approval for her client's property. It shows the plan is for a four-story, 130-room hotel on a 5-acre tract on land previously used for a hotel that was destroyed by fire. That would be the Comfort Inn, next to Michael's nightclub on Street Road.

The board at that time approved four variances for zoning relief related to impervious coverage, a buffer zone, a setback and a side yard.

Farrell, who was not involved with the project in 2008, said Thursday that she didn't know why the project had been delayed so long or what the current status or timetable might be for the project.