In its July meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the Augusta Planning Commission voted to approve an ambitious extended-stay project off Washington Road, and a proposed new south Augusta neighborhood near Butler Creek.
Wynn Hotels Augusta received recommendation for the special exception it requested to build an extended stay hotel at 113 Charlestowne Way, off Washington Road. Jigar Amin, managing owner of Wynn Hotels, told commissioners his intention to build a dual branded set of suites out of the shell of the former Clarion Hotel building on the property — a La Quinta by Wyndham, with 55 rooms, and a Hawthorne Suites, with 57 rooms.
While no one attended the meeting to oppose the request, residents of the adjacent Charlestowne neighborhood sent a letter to Augusta Planning via attorney Wright McLeod, expressing concerns about “stormwater retention, the [acceleration and deceleration] lane, sidewalks and landscaping plan,” requesting that staff facilitate a meeting between the property owner and representatives from the neighborhood to address those issues.
Staff told the commissioners that in response, the Engineering Department went to the site to examine the issues and concluded that the developer could not individually conduct all the improvements to the acceleration/deceleration lane as the road is shared by several parcels.
Staff also said that the landscaping, stormwater and sidewalk would be managed through the site plan process.
Planning Commissioner Donnie Smith, however, expressed concern regarding the homeless population and crime in the area, initially asking Amin whether he had discussed with any government representative— local, state or federal — about housing stipends on the hotel, before the city attorney Samuel Meller intervened. Chairman Sonny Pittman, after speaking with Meller, advised Smith to reword his question.
“We’ve had several shootings out there,” said Smith. “We’ve had multiple overdoses in those hotels up there. How are you going to stop that, with this being on a 24-hour extended stay, where somebody’s going to stay there two months, three months, four months, five months? How are you going to address that?”
Amin, who owns several other hotels in the area, including Comfort Suites on Riverwest Drive, replied saying the renovation would change the hotel from an exterior to an interior corridor building, with only one entry and exit point during off hours.
Amin also said he has hired Richmond County Sheriff’s deputies to conduct security at his other hotel properties, and could do the same for the proposed new one.
Commissioner George McKnight motioned to recommend approval of Amin’s request, with an added condition that the applicant provide 24-hour security monitoring, be it video surveillance or live security personnel. All of the planning commissioners voted in favor, save for Smith, who abstained.
The Planning Commission also recommended approval of Atlanta builder Jeff Camp’s request to rezone 10 acres 2804 Meadowbrook Drive.
Camp requested to change the property from Agricultural to R-1A family residential to develop a neighborhood of 29 single-family parcels.
Patricia Jeter, speaking on behalf of relatives who live near the property, asked the commission whether the proposed homes would be built with brick, complementing the aesthetics of surrounding homes, or with vinyl siding.
“We want the properties over in that area to increase in value instead of decrease,” said Jeter. “We have a lot of developers coming to the communities over in west Augusta and south Augusta, and they’re just bringing a bunch of vinyl siding which decreases the value of the current standing structures.”
Camp’s lawyer said to the commissioners that Camp would be willing to comply with any conditions applied to an approval, including a brick façade on all the homes, but that requiring brick on all four sides would effectively price out the project.
Camp suggested a compromise with a 75% brick front façade, and the remainder having fiber cement siding. The commissioners ultimately voted in favor of this, and recommended Camp’s rezoning request unanimously.
A rezoning request by Pace Living to change 210 Reservation Way from Light Industrial to Multi-family residential, in order to renovate a Ramada hotel into a studio apartment complex, was postponed to the August meeting.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
