Plans for an upscale hotel in the Village of Oak Creek are on hold — at least for now.
Many residents have expressed concerns for the proposed Hilton Garden Inn at the corner of State Route 179 and Jacks Canyon Road citing additional traffic, height, the need for another hotel, as well as viewsheds and quality of life being impacted.
The original design of the hotel showed it having three stories and 165 total rooms. The zoning for that piece of property has remained the same since 1968. Under the current zoning, only two homes could be built on the 4.74- acre lot, thus a zone change would have to be granted by Yavapai County to the owners, Chandrika and Jack Patel.
“We requested the county planning staff to hold our application from moving forward to hearings to give us additional time to amend our application,” Patel attorney and spokeswoman Jennifer Boblick said in late March. “Our design team has been working on plans that would lower the building height and eliminate the setback waivers so the only request remaining would be the commercial zoning.”
The request for commercial zoning would allow development of the property in line with the covenants, conditions and restrictions designation of “business purposes” for this lot.
The Patels were scheduled to appear before the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission on March 21, in Cottonwood. But following a Feb. 14 Big Park Regional Coordinating Council in which it voted unanimously to recommend denial of the project to the county, the Patels decided to take another look at the project’s design. The council is not a governing body but rather an advisory one to the county. BPRCC’s planning and zoning committee also unanimously recommended denial.
“We wanted to have the additional time for our design team to work on a solution that addressed some of the concerns from the community regarding the height and setback issues,” Boblick said. “Because of the site’s unusual shape and various design constraints including easements and floodplains, we had to ensure that a solution to lower the height and adjust the setbacks was viable.”
She was clear that the Patels still plan to build a hotel on the land, which they have owned for many years. But until they formally submit their amendment to the application, Boblick said they won’t know what their hearing schedule with the county will be.
“The plan is to move forward with the zoning request only and work within the requested C2-1 commercial development standards,” she said. “Specific details are still being worked out as the plans are finalized. The building height has been lowered, which has reduced the overall room count and eliminated some of the internal amenity spaces.
“The goal is to maintain the original building footprint to the extent possible as the site plan was carefully designed to respond to view corridor preservation and existing easements.”
In an interview with Boblick earlier this year, she said the fact the zoning has not changed in 50 years was a challenge. To develop the businesses and homes in the Village, properties had to be rezoned from its original residential zone category.
Everything in the Village around our site has been rezoned over the years just like we are asking for here,” she said. “That has allowed the Village of Oak Creek to look as it does today. All of the residential subdivisions and commercial areas in the Village were zoned a similar category in 1968 and had to be rezoned for their specific development.
“The Village of Oak Creek would not exist if those properties were required to maintain the original 1960s zoning. Our zoning request is simply to be afforded the same development opportunities that all other properties in the Village received.”
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
