Village board tables hotel site plan approval

PENN YAN—Some 37 residents attended the regular meeting of the Penn Yan planning board Monday, Aug. 5, where the board decided to table approval of a hotel site plan. The application was for an 11,000 square foot, four story hotel to be located at the former McCredy car dealership site at 124 Elm St. The Yates County planning board had accepted and sent the site plan on to the village board for review at their July 25 meeting.
According to the company website, the Indus Group is a Pittsford based company that develops, builds and operates real estate and hospitality ventures for businesses including Wyndham, Hilton, Microtel and Hampton Inn hotels.
Board member and Director of Public Works Brent Bodine requested tabling the final decision until the board received information on the building design and what the grounds will look like. Development Manager for the Indus Group Kip Finley said the group has not settled on a hotel brand yet, which would impact some design aspects of the building. He said the group also plans on having the building blend in with Penn Yan’s downtown historic district and will work with the village to meet their planning standards.
“This isn’t going to look like the kind of hotel you see along the interstate,” Finley said.
Finley said while the company does not have details on building materials or construction type yet, they are planning on a 75 to 78 room hotel with between 15 and 25 potential employees. Planning Board Chairman Cliff Orr said the village would like to bring in an outside architect to work with the company’s architect to come up with the best exterior design for the building. The board later passed a resolution to hire the Rochester Regional Design Company to work with the Indus Group at a cost “not to exceed $1,000” to be reimbursed by the applicant.
Finley said they will be building on all five parcels on the lot and will be demolishing the main dealership showroom, storefront and body shop. He said the company still needs to do some remediation work inside of the buildings before the project can begin.
Orr raised questions about the parking lot, asking if there would be enough room for tour buses to load and unload passengers at the site. Finley said the parking lot aisles would be wide enough for two cars to pass side by side, but said there would need to be more discussion as far as turning onto Wagener Street and accommodating emergency vehicles.
After significant discussion, the board offered a motion to conditionally accept the site plan pending final review of certain factors including design and type of construction, the recommendations of consulting from the Rochester Regional Design Company, parking lot details, site distances, location, size and design of all exterior signs, color rendering of proposed buildings, proposed landscaping details, exterior lighting and details of signage, and remediation work. Bodine said he “would not be comfortable” voting for approval without knowing some of these details first, so the board withdrew its motion and instead decided to table discussion until more of these conditions are met.
“I feel there is a little too much out there still,” Bodine said.
Orr said the board can table the application for up to 60 days.
In other business:
The board accepted an application from Carolyn Lincoln to subdivide a residential property at 346 Clinton St. into two parcels.
The board scheduled their next regular meeting for Monday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in the village hall.