Asheville City Council OKs Biltmore Village hotel at the center of historic district
ASHEVILLE - The Florida-based hospitality brand that runs and owns the Grand Bohemian Asheville in Biltmore Village has clinched approval for another hotel just across the street.
Asheville City Council on March 12 approved a 99-room hotel, restaurant and retail space at 10 Kitchin Place in a 4-2 vote, with council members Sage Turner and Kim Roney voting against.
The project was brought before the board by The Kessler Collection, which owns 11 hotels and resorts, along with other boutique and high-end developments, including a mansion, several art galleries and a commercial business district in Savannah, Georgia.
Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore was not in attendance at the meeting.
The new hotel falls within the Biltmore Village Historic District overlay, a few hundred feet from the entrance to Biltmore Estate off Hendersonville Road in South Asheville.
Architect Christian Sottile, representing the applicant at the March 12 meeting, said the project "map(s) to the architectural history of Biltmore Village," representing a "restoration" of the village on a site that currently houses a former ATM and vacant bank building in a low 1960s-era structure.
The project received Historic Resource Commission approval Sept. 13.
Project details
The .77-acre, trapezoidal site is boxed by Angle Street, Kitchin Place, Hendersonville Road and Boston Way. It sits at the core of Biltmore Village, adjacent to the historic All Souls Cathedral, whose dean, Sarah Hurlbert, voiced support of the project at a Feb. 7 Planning and Zoning Commission.
Hurlbert also spoke in favor at the March 12 City Council meeting.
The proposed building, according to the staff report, will have a gross floor area of 105,000 square feet, 4,250 square feet of which will be retail and amenity space, to include a ballroom, spa, gallery, bar and restaurant.
The property's existing structures will be demolished for the construction of the new four-story building. The proposal is architecturally consistent with the historical designs of the area, according to the findings of the Historic Resources Commission, from the building's use of brick masonry and pebbledash, to its terracotta roof, half-timbering, brick inlays and pressed copper ornaments.
A looped drive and pathways along Kitchin Place will serve as guest drop off and primary pedestrian access. There will be 186 parking spaces for hotel guests, employees and restaurant goers in two below-grade parking levels.
Among the project's conditions is a promise to work in "good faith" with the city and the N.C. Department of Transportation for installation of a signalized pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Hendersonville Road and Boston Way, connecting the project to transit route stops.
It also proposed the creation of a new pocket park across from All Souls Cathedral, allowing for preservation of a "significant" Oriental spruce tree, and the installation of a below-ground retention system for stormwater, intended to alleviate flooding impacts.
Both Turner and Roney voiced support for assurances of employee parking as part of the project. Roney noted that the two bus routes serving this South Asheville neighborhood only run every 90 minutes, making it difficult for area employees to rely on it for transportation.
"Land use decisions are one of the most important roles that council has. And so when we're having conditional zoning conversations ... it falls on us to connect land use with the goals in our Living Asheville Comprehensive Plan, and it is my assessment that this use will not help us to meet those goals," Roney said of her vote against the project.
Public benefits?
While the project falls in the "all hotels" Hotel Overlay district, it requires a Level III conditional zoning approval, in part because of its size, which tops the 100,000-square-feet cutoff for Level II projects, further complicated by the contradicting elements of the hotel and historic district overlays, both at play for the property.
Because it is a Level III approval, which goes to the planning board and City Council, rather than a lower level planning application, the project is not required to provide certain "public benefits."
The Public Benefits table was created after the 2019 hotel moratorium, and requires hotels developers seeking Level I or Level II approval to provide cash toward affordable housing or reparations funds or provide residential units to meet a required standard amount of Public Benefit points.
Despite this, at the February Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, the developer voluntarily offered up public benefits anyway. They include a $6,000 per room contribution to the city's affordable housing or reparations fund and a $300 per room contribution to the city for public art.
Senior Assistant City Attorney Jannice Ashley advised in February that while the two monetary contributions, legally, should not be added as conditions of the conditional zoning request, they could be brought to council outside of the zoning process and a donation agreement could be created.
In response to a question from Turner at the March meeting, City Attorney Brand Branham took a similar stance, saying the city prefers to take a "somewhat conservative approach," and his office feels it is more appropriate to provide a separate document to "memorialize" voluntary contributions, rather than including it in zoning conditions.
Prior to the final vote, Turner motioned for the voluntary conditions, including those relating to public benefits, be included in the actual project conditions. The motion failed for lack of a second.
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Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 99-unit Biltmore Village hotel clinches final approval from Council
