WATSONVILLE — Following a two-hour discussion, the Watsonville Planning Commission voted 3-1-1 to approve a special use permit and major variance request for a new five-story Holiday Inn Express on a vacant parcel on Technology Drive at its Tuesday meeting.
The commission also voted to recommend to change the zoning code’s maximum building height to 75 feet for hotels in the “Industrial Park” zoning district. This matter will be decided by the City Council before the project can move forward.
The project is proposed by Prakash Patel, the owner of Lotus Management Inc., which has built several hotels in the area over the decades. This includes the existing Holiday Inn Express on Main Street, which he said is nearing the end of its life after being constructed in 2000.
“To maintain the current standards, it’s hard to renovate it,” he said. “We have renovated more than three times. Every time, it’s getting more and more expensive with the size of the rooms and everything. It’s not to the current standards.”
Patel said the current Holiday Inn Express would likely be transitioned to a new owner and it would potentially become a different chain. In the meantime, he is proposing a new franchise on a vacant hillside at 375 Technology Drive. The site is currently a vacant slope occupied by mature trees and shrubbery.
The plan calls for a 2,348-square-foot, five-story, 75-foot-tall hotel with 95 rooms, 100 vehicle parking spaces and five parking spaces for bikes. Proposed amenities include a lobby, fitness room, laundry area, indoor swimming pool, meeting spaces, breakfast area, lifestyle lounge and business center. Patel is also proposing to install a retaining wall and to make landscaping and other site improvements.
Patel additionally requested a change to the front yard setback and height requirements. The city’s minimum setback requirement is 25 feet, but Patel proposed a 10-foot setback due to topographic constraints on the site. The maximum building height in the Industrial Park district is 35 feet, but Patel requested 75 feet, for which the city is proposing to amend the zoning code to allow this to be the new required standard for hotels in the zoning district.
Patel had previously attempted to develop a Holiday Inn Express at the site in 2009 and 2015, and had even gotten approval from the city, but both times the projects were scrapped because of financial constraints. One of the biggest sticking points was a proposed underground parking garage.
“That underground parking was killing it because every time it came to $5 (million) to $6 million just for the parking,” he said.
This time around, Patel is proposing approximately 80 stalls with stackable parking, a system with mechanical lifts to store vehicles vertically and double the parking capacity.
Planning Commission Vice Chair Peter Radin expressed concerns that the stackable parking system would drive guests to park on Technology Drive, where parking is not permitted, rather than in the lot.
“If you look for a gimmick to get outside a loophole, in a sense, on the parking requirements by using stackable parking ultimately is not going to fly because people resist it,” he said. “What you’re going to create is a lot of unintended consequences that you’re not going to have a place to adequately park.”
Patel said his intention was not to circumvent the parking requirements but to get the project to fit on the site.
Chair Lucy Rojas asked if the amount of parking — which would include five employee spaces — would be sufficient at full capacity. Patel said he does not anticipate the hotel always being completely occupied, but he expected it would generally be busiest between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. After that, he said the desk clerk would likely be the only employee parked at the site.
Commissioner Dafnne Breitler inquired about potential noise from neighboring properties. The site is located in an industrial area with surrounding facilities including GraniteRock’s headquarters and packaging company Pratt Agriculture. Patel said Holiday Inn Express requires its hotels to have sound barriers.
Rojas asked if the proposed 75-foot building height maximum would be applied only to this project or all projects in perpetuity. Community Development Director Matt Orbach said the language would only apply to hotels in industrial park-zoned parcels.
Property owners on adjacent parcels spoke out against the proposal. Pat Hoban — vice president and principal geologist at neighboring Weber, Hayes & Associates — felt the parcel was too small for such a towering project.
“I drove by tonight coming off the highway over by the hillside and just imagining 75 feet,” he said. “Although the hill’s going to be cut a little bit, it’s humongous.”
Robert Kim, who operates Kim Family Enterprise on the adjacent lot, said he was not opposed to the project but was concerned about impacts to the neighborhood during construction.
“He’s going to be cutting down that hill, there will be a lot of dust, dirt, vibrations from there, and that will affect our property,” he said.
Radin felt there needed to be more dialogue with the community.
“My preference is not that this project end here but rather that the complexity of the project warrants more thought, more input and it deserves a chance to reach consensus on some of these issues,” he said.
Commissioner Lowell Hurst felt the hotel would be a good revenue generator for the city, particularly its Transient Occupancy Tax, and also felt it was a good use of the property.
“It’s got pretty decent freeway visibility, and that makes it attractive as a hotel site,” he said.
The commission voted 3-1-1 with Breitler, Hurst and Rojas voting in favor, Radin voting against and Commissioner Daniel Dodge abstaining. Commissioners Brando Sencion and Martha Vega were absent. The decision is final unless appealed to the council within 14 days.
In other business, the commission unanimously approved a major variance request for a new single-family residence on Brennan Street and a special use permit for a new residential care facility for New Life Community Services at 255 E. Lake Ave.