By Marney Simon | Enterprise Staff
Some residents of Plainfield are again frustrated with the village’s plans for development, as yet another proposal has garnered opposition for its placement and potential negative impact to local homes.
Last week, the plan commission reviewed a proposal for a new hotel near the interstate.
The applicant, Suhas Patel, owns a hotel in Bolingbrook, and is looking to develop another along I-55 in Plainfield.
Patel is seeking to build a four-story Avid brand hotel on a vacant 2.45-acre parcel at the corner of U.S. 30 and Spangler Road.
The village planning board last week reviewed a plan for a new Avid hotel at U.S. 30 and Spangler Road. The project has already gained significant opposition from neighbors, who are worried about light, noise, and additional traffic safety concerns.
The hotel as proposed would house 92 rooms. Avid is a flag of the Intercontinental Hotels Group, which also includes Holiday Inn, Staybridge, and Hotel Indigo. Per the staff report, the mid-scale hotel would provide direct competition to other hotels along the I-55 corridor. Prices for rooms are expected to average in the $100 range.
The proposed hotel included amenities including a pool, a marketplace, and an indoor café and seating area.
The site does have access issues. Entrance to the site is only available from the east bound lanes of U.S. 30. Staff has asked the applicant to work with the neighboring subdivision on a possible cross access easement. The staff report noted that a hotel may be a better fit for a site with access issues, due to its patronage type.
The site is also unusually shaped, with a large cutout in the center of the parcel. That cutout belongs to BP.
Rather than seek a variance for the height of the proposed hotel, which is 15 feet higher than the maximum allowed in a business district, the applicant has instead proposed the project as a planned unit development (PUD). By code, a PUD is relieved of height restrictions, but is subject to other rules and regulations.
A hotel has been on the list of potential businesses that could attract people to Plainfield. The village’s economic development committee identified hotels as a lacking business that could benefit the village. The village conducted a hotel feasibility study over the past year. The results of that study showed that occupancy rates and average daily rates in the area are holding strong, and that the region can support additional hotel development.
But, some neighbors are already rallying against the project.
Residents of the nearby Winding Creek subdivision approached the board to issue their concerns, including added traffic, traffic through their neighborhood, and the potential for a hotel to attract transients or crime.
Neighbors are also worried that a large hotel backing up to a residential neighborhood would affect property values and enjoyment, and light and noise pollution would be detrimental to their lives.
“I would like any of you to stand up and tell me that yes, you would like to live right across the street from a hotel,” said Georgette Lane, who lives directly across from the proposed site. “I don’t’ care how dim the lighting is supposed to be. It’s still going to be excess lighting. It’s going to be excess noise when they come to pick up the trash, excess traffic… And our property value is going to decline immensely when that hotel goes up.”
Those neighbors also questioned the aesthetics of the hotel, noting that a four-story hotel is taller than the nearby hotels in Joliet.
The hotel as proposed would sit at Spangler and U.S. 30, which would include traffic difficulties. Spangler Road only has access to one side of U.S. 30. Neighbors are concerned that traffic will detour through their residential streets to avoid that one-way issue.
“I think looking at the bigger picture, it’s going to be an excessive burden to the residential communities that we all live in, compared to the relative gain of having another floor of this hotel. So, my major question is, what does there have to be four stories on this hotel?” said Sean Langas, another local resident. “What is the significant gain of having this extra story or these extra two stories, why can’t it be a two-story hotel? A lot of our preferences would be no hotel, of course.”
Over the weekend, nearly two dozen residents of the neighboring areas gathered at the Moose Lodge in Plainfield to organize efforts to fight the village on the proposal. That group plans to organize a petition against the project and present their own findings to the village.
The plan commission opted to continue to issue for more information.