A proposal to partially transform a York Street motel into apartments moved closer to reality Wednesday.
The Williamsburg Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend a proposal by Knights Inn owner Douglas Pons, who also serves on City Council, to convert 60 of the motel’s 130 rooms into 40 apartments, a leasing office, community room and laundry room.
The proposal now moves to the City Council for approval.
The reconfigured layout would consist of 35 efficiency apartments, three one-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units across three buildings at the rear of the hotel. The remaining two buildings, totaling 70 rooms, would continue to operate as a motel.
During a public hearing on the proposal, several community members spoke in support of Pons.
E.J. Patel, who owns a hotel in the City of Williamsburg, said city government should be flexible to allow hotel owners to redevelop their properties for new uses.
Billy Scruggs, who also owns a hotel in the city and previously served on City Council, said Pons’ plan would help fill a need for affordable housing in the area. Scruggs said many individuals involved in the region’s service and tourism industries were unable to afford housing in the area, forcing them to commute long distances or trust unreliable public transportation.
Planning Commission members generally agreed, saying the application was a suitable adaptive reuse of the property.
Pons said he submitted the proposal as a response to a regional decline in tourism that has dropped the motel’s annual occupancy rate to 20 percent. While there has been a regional decline in motel space demand, Pons said there had been an increase in demand for affordable housing.
Pons said the proposal would address both the motel’s vacancy issue and the lack of affordable housing options in the area. The proposed apartment units would have rental rates ranging from $650 to $1,050.
In a memo to the Planning Commission, Deputy Planning Director Carolyn Murphy said city staff did not recommend approval of the proposal because it did not align with the city’s 2013 Comprehensive Plan for commercial corridors, which was written to encourage new mixed-use developments in those areas.
The memo also listed other concerns, including the aesthetics of an apartment building with numerous exterior doors, the high use of hotel space as long-term lodging by transient residents, and an increased school cost.
For the 2014-15 school year, an estimated 63 students at Williamsburg-James City County Schools live in city hotels. Under the current school contract, the city is not required to contribute per student funds for those children. Turning the motel into apartments could increase the number of regular students in the city to $9,730 per student.
Planning Commission members largely dismissed those concerns.
Commission member Dan Quarles said he saw no reason to deny the request, and Elaine McBeth said she viewed it as an adaptive reuse of the property.
The Planning Commission also declined to include a condition suggested by city staff to require the motel to remove unnecessary exterior doors from the proposed apartment units.
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