Developers Ice Plans for Hampton Inn in Downtown Franklin

FRANKLIN, TN — Plans for a hotel at the former site of Dotson's Restaurant are dead, for now.

Chartwell Hospitality informed the Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen that is withdrawing the plans for a 100-room Hampton Inn at the corner of First Avenue and East Main Street along the Harpeth River, as necessary changes to city zoning requirements are not forthcoming.

While Chartwell had agreed to match the city's historic downtown aesthetic standards, a portion of the property lies within the 100-year flood plain. Franklin's zoning ordinance does not allow for hotel projects within the flood plain and the city's conservation design concept discourages building in the floodplain altogether, according to the Franklin Home Page.

To allow the hotel, an amendment to the land-use plan would be required, but the conservation design concept does not support text amendments and Franklin's rules on building within floodways are more stringent that Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements and intentionally so.

The city's planning department is considering a Riverfront Plan to address future uses along the Harpeth, but developing that plan will take a considerable amount of study and time, so it opted to push forward with the amendment for the Hampton Inn, the newspaper reports. Both the planning commission and city council denied that amendment, essentially killing the project.

Image via Chartwell Hospitality.