The Healdsburg City Council is having a discussion on potentially changing the permitted use of hotels in the Downtown and Plaza Commercial Districts at 5 p.m. on Monday, December 4, at city hall.
Residents for Balance Downtown is proposing to the city council that it restrict any future hotel growth in the Plaza and Downtown Commercial Districts only. This is a four-block by three-block area (Piper to Mill, and East to Vine). There is an overconcentration of hotels and rooms there. To keep our small town character and charm, the area should have a mix of retail, office and residential uses that serve local residents and visitors.
Here are some questions and responses to the hotel situation downtown:
1. What is the hotel situation currently and for the future?
Healdsburg has 426 hotel rooms with another 430 in construction and planning stages, giving us the possibility of 856 hotel rooms citywide. This hotel boom will double our current number. The downtown and plaza districts have 12 hotels of varying sizes with 181 rooms. The downtown has two hotels on the Plaza, and two hotels within 150 yards of the Plaza. We have enough downtown hotels. We need balance to preserve our sense of place and historic downtown.
2. Why do you want to limit hotels in the downtown now? Is there a hotel going in?
There is the potential for a new hotel on Healdsburg Avenue across from the h2Hotel. The buyer spent over $7 million dollars in August for the vacant lot and four businesses on Matheson. There is a need to act now before a potential hotel application for that site. In 2013 a Florida developer proposed a huge 75-room hotel on that site, but eventually backed out. Also, there are at least five other downtown sites that could accommodate hotels if the current owners decided to build them or sell the property to a developer.
3. Will there be negative economic effects if hotels are limited downtown?
No. The economic effects of hotel growth, that many anticipate, will be delivered by the many large hotel projects that are already underway. This growth will fuel downtown hospitality, businesses and sales tax. Hotel guests will go downtown for dining, drinking and shopping. There will be a very large TOT (transit occupancy tax) increase with this doubling of the number of hotel rooms. We believe the downtown can and should support residents and tourists by focusing on a mix of retail, office space and residential housing that maintains our small town charm.
4. Wouldn’t more hotels downtown ease traffic and parking congestion?
No. Cars would continue to go in and out of busy downtown streets and there would be additional hotel visitor uses that would bring in more cars. An additional hotel on Healdsburg Avenue on one block will likely produce more congestion, backup, and noise (three hotels with potentially 125 rooms).
5. Shouldn’t a property owner be able to build what he wants?
Land use and zoning should reflect the needs and concerns of our 12,000 residents. For example, a wine tasting ordinance was recently passed that limited the number of wine tasting shops downtown and prevented an overconcentration of this use. The city council, on a majority vote, can easily make a land use code change to limit hotels downtown. Also, the city’s General Plan Guiding Principles have numerous references to preserving a balance between residents’ quality of life and visitor needs.
6. Will a few more hotels downtown hurt the feel and image?
With 181 hotel rooms downtown, we believe we are already over the tipping point. Many residents would like to see diversity with both locally owned and serving shops. There are also additional concerns about more tourist bedrooms coming into our downtown living room. Tourists would also continue to appreciate a real town, where the scale is small and there is a range of shops and businesses that serve everyone. We need to be very careful we don’t kill the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.
We appreciate your support. You are invited to attend this extremely important meeting and give vocal support. Also, please send emails to our city council members. Their email addresses are available on the city website.
“Residents for Balance Downtown” is community volunteer Gail Jonas, Community Housing Committee member Bruce Abramson and Parks & Recreation Commissioner Chris Herrod.
